


B'ezrat HaShem

by Cheerios789



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Explicit Language, F/M, Original Character-centric, Pre-Mass Effect 1, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-30
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2017-12-21 22:15:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 40
Words: 179,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/905563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheerios789/pseuds/Cheerios789
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht was a loud and obnoxious woman.  She was also a student, a friend, and a cripple.  That doesn't mean that her life was horrible though, she loved her life.  Spend all night playing video games, go to school, go to work, then get home and start the cycle all over again.  Charlie's life was about to get a little more complicated and weird, and it wasn't even going to give her the common courtesy of asking first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This not a self-insert, although it does taste like one. By the way if you have a problem with Jews, you probably shouldn't read this story. Also if you are extremely religious and you find that my portrayal of Charlie is inaccurate or offensive, I apologize. I am Jewish (well I'm reform and really more of an atheist, but what can you do) and her experiences and attitude somewhat reflect my own.
> 
> I will make sure I translate any yiddish into English for people, but if I miss anything feel free to let me know about it. Also if at any point I have botched a translation or I have spelt it wrong, let me know. There isn't really only one way to spell things and it's largely phonetic.
> 
> The Title means "With The Help of The Name" (The Name here means God, we're not supposed to write God down. Oh no I did it anyways! My mother would be so disappointed.)
> 
> Goy means Gentile (Which if you didn't know is all of the non-Jews, you know who you are.)
> 
> One last tidbit, this story is rather slow moving to the events of Mass Effect and it will be a while before you even see any characters you recognize. Also this is my first attempt at showing my fiction to the world, so be gentle but also feel free to give me some real advice. I can use it and I am aware of that fact. Thank you and whoever is reading this, I love you and you are a sexy beast.

“Son of a bitch”, Charlie swore, “That fucking little demon kid … and his stupid fucking face.”

Charlie stared at the small child’s stupid fucking face.

_Correction_ , she thought, _His stupid fucking holographic face._

Charlie was tired or, for the sake of being completely accurate, she was exhausted.  She truly had no energy reserves left.  Nicotine had run out, as had caffeine.  She ran a hand through limp greasy hair, exhaled explosively, and took stock of her current physical condition.  Her back felt bowed and stiff, her hands were permanently curled and cramped, more than small movements sent pain scorching up her arms, and her eyes (Oh god her eyes) were swollen, red, and gritty she could barely even see anymore.  Charlie hip was stiff, but not painful.  However she was well aware that it would make her pay for it later.

  _Shit_ , her attention snapped back to the child, _he’s still talking._

_Well, at least, I can finally get some answers._

Charlie listened to the child, well Catalyst, drone on and on.  And.  On.

_Yes, yes, I figured most of this out already.  Just get to the good stuff._

When the stupid-demon-Catalyst-child finally finished talking, he left her with three options.  None of them were particularly appealing and this definitely felt like a “lesser of two or three evils” decision.  Control, Synthesis, or Destruction; they all had major flaws, not the least of which was that they all ended with her demise. 

_So I’ll pick the one that causes the least bad.  Synthesis.  At least the geth and EDI will get a happily ever after._

“Brutal Calculus.”  She whispered to the room.

“Shit, Calculus!”  A quick glance at the clock confirmed her suspicions of the impending doom of her Advanced Calculus exam. 

_God forbid I’m late, Tim will wet himself._

Snickering at the thought of her best friend’s panic attack, she directed her character to middle of the room and watched the scene unfurl. 

“Well that was properly dramatic.”  Charlie quickly saved the game and slowly stood to crack her back. 

She had about ten minutes to change and hit the road.  She wasn’t exactly in a hurry though.  Feeling strangely accomplished at finishing the trilogy of games, Charlie stumbled around the room trying (and failing) to quietly put clothes on.  Charlie had never been accused possessing grace though.  Her attempt at putting jeans on ended with her just barely managing to catch herself on the metal bar attached to the wall. 

_Well that could have been a lot worse._

She eventually did manage to get her pants and leaned over her not-really-conscious boyfriend and gave him a kiss. 

“Hey sleepy” She whispered, “That’s some rank morning breath.”

Justin’s undoubtedly eloquent retort was somewhat hindered by him forgetting how to speak.

“Indeed, love, but I’ve really got to go.  I’ll see you tonight … at some point … when I get out.”  Charlie’s sentence was broken by disgusting yet sweet kisses from Justin. 

Justin attempted speech one more time before latching on to her arm and pulling her into bed.

 

* * *

 

 

Now running completely late, Charlie started her van’s engine with a silent prayer and backed out of her driveway.  Thankfully Justin had wiped away all thoughts of Mass Effect and that left her brain to quietly turn over memorized theorems most of the way to class.  She pulled into the driveway of Tim’s apartment complex and gave him a call.  He had actually called her a few times already, but Charlie really hated to answer her phone.  As someone who was perpetually late, she didn’t like to give accounts of her whereabouts.  It was much easier to just drive little faster or forgo a shower to make up lost time. 

“Tim, darling, you’ve got five minutes to get that sweet ass out here.  I’m not stopping, just slowing down a little.  Move it, soldier!”  She giggled at Tim’s flustered and indignant yelling at her and chucked the phone onto the passenger seat without hanging up.   She parked her van in front of the apartment stairs and looked sweetly at Tim’s enraged face bouncing down the steps.  He opened the door and threw her phone at her without looking down at the seat out with the ease of habit. 

After he slammed the door and Charlie had started driving again he turned to her, “Where have you been for the past two days?”

Charlie grimaced at the road.  “Uh … studying?”

She fixed him with a wry grin, “You know that there this a test today … right?”

Tim shook his head, closed his eyes, and said, “Which game?”  He had known Charlie for far too long to not know the only reason she would disappear for days, especially if they were weekdays. 

She gave him a look.  “I didn’t get a game.  I was working … I uh got called in.  You know that _goy_ manager is always on my ass.” 

Tim’s head snapped to her with a look of smug satisfaction and chuckled, “You should never play poker.  You cuss all the time, but you don’t hide behind the torah unless you’re lying.”

Charlie’s face scrunched up and had an accusation of Tim’s anti-Semitism on the tip of her tongue, when he cut her off. 

“Actually I don’t care.  Did you get to problem 13.4?”

“All done with the banter then?  It’s been two days since I’ve seen you, Tim.  You know I need this.”

“Char”, Tim said sharply, ”The test is now … we’ll banter later.”

Charlie sighed, “Fine which one is 13.4?”

 

* * *

 

 

The campus was beautiful with landscaped lawns and architecturally stunning buildings.  Charlie, however, rarely walked the beautiful paths and tended to stay in the back corner of the campus where the tiny Mathematics department was sandwiched between the even smaller Physics department and the slightly larger Computer Science department.  The school was primarily an Art, Music, and Liberal Arts university.  Though the Engineering department was gaining some steam.  Charlie unrepentedly referred to majority of student’s degrees as MRS degrees, with the superior smugness that comes with having personally chosen a “hard science” degree.  Pure Mathematics with a double major in Computer Science (which she claimed she only like for the theory classes), Charlie may be intelligent, but she made no effort to hide her smugness about it. 

If it wasn’t for the fact that she would schedule bi-weekly study sessions with more than half of her classes in attendance and the fact that she made every effort to make sure they all passed, she may have taken more grief for her attitude.  However, she was surprisingly friends with most of the people she met, even though her “banter” with friends frequently bordered on abusive. 

Charlie had not had many friends before she got into college and was a borderline recluse in high school with a single exception.  Rugby.  She put a gross majority of her time into the sport during her teen years and between work outs and doing increasingly immature things with her mates she was not quite sure how she graduated at all.  However, Florida has never exactly been the shining star of education in the states.  Charlie would give a lot of things to continue playing the sport, but after a particularly hairy injury involving a 300 lb beast of a woman and her shattered right hip that wasn’t much of an option. 

Charlie had politely declined the leg brace, but was then politely told to stuff it and it was forced on her anyway.  Even with the pronounced limp and the more than just a little muscle mass turned to soft tissue, she was still impressive looking.  At 6’1, she didn’t really look up to many people.  Charlie’s overall build was due in large credit to her grandfather’s German heritage, with her broad shoulders, long legs, and blue-gray eyes.  However, she quite happily had stolen her Jewish grandmother’s light  olive skin, black curly hair, and obscenely large eyes.  Okay she had gotten the nose as well, but with so much damage the poor thing had taken over the years; that was hardly genetics fault.

Charlie awkward gait through campus came to a slow in front of the building.  “You go ahead.  I want to finish this.”  She said to Tim, as she took another drag.

“Nah I’ll stay here.”  Tim shuffled about nervously staring at the building.

Charlie laughed her friend’s duress and plopped rather ungracefully on the bench.  She turned her attention to staring at whatever new monstrosity shamelessly art called by some senior student, had found its way to the courtyard.  At first she was convinced that it was perfectly hideous.  At least twice her height and made out of some solid black stone.  The stone was buffed to a perfect sheen.  It was just a pillar, a large triangle prism.  There was something so wrong about it, though.  Charlie didn’t know exactly what it was, but it bothered her. 

_Maybe the dimensions are wrong?_

She hobbled over the structure to solve the mystery, because she knew that there was no she was going to focus on her exam if she didn’t figure it out.  When she was just a few feet away from it, she stopped.  She heard a buzzing like a hum, but more aggressive.  Charlie’s skin prickled as it felt like the sound was permeating her flesh.  It wasn’t loud enough to be causing this feeling, she knew that.  Charlie had been in enough bars and stood in front of enough bass speakers to know that there was no way her body should be reacting this way to such a soft sound.

“Maybe this is something from the Physics lab?  Soundwave blah-blah-blah machine?”  She whispered the words or maybe she didn’t even say them aloud.  Whatever this was it was intoxicating.  She took another step forward. 

Charlie didn’t think she moaned, but it was entirely possible.  The force should have knocked her over, but it felt like it was supporting her, helping her.  It wasn’t obtrusive or constricting, it was soothing like being carried by a warm ocean.  The thrumming was more intense here almost violent, but she found that she loved it.  It was getting difficult to feel her extremities, but “Fuck it” she thought it was bliss. 

“Shit!” Charlie yelped as her fingers were burnt.  She quickly dropped the cigarette and stuck her fingers in her mouth.  The pain didn’t make the thrumming stop, but did force it to the back of her mind.  She shook her head and decided to reexamine the pillar.  It definitely didn’t feel wrong this close up, it felt decidedly right.  It was odd though.  She could not figure out what it was made of.  Definitely not stone as she first thought.  It might have been metal, she mused as she slowly circled the pillar, but no there are no seams . 

_I don’t care how good of a welder you are … you can’t build something so … perfect._

She stopped abruptly.  Charlie stared at a portion of one the faces, it looked ever so slightly dulled.  There was a pattern to it, as well.  As if a hand had deliberately traced a looping calligraphy. 

Charlie hesitated only for a second before moving her hand to follow the tracing.  She was surprised to discover that the metal was warm to the touch and that the tracing was actually a slight groove in the pillar.  It wasn’t carved in, but it was as if it had been worn down over time by a much larger hand.  As she followed the grooves the thrumming shifted and instead of what could be considered background noise, it suddenly gained a rhythm almost like music.  She tried to drag it out, to slow her hand so that the music lasted for a longer time.  She knew when she reached the end that it would stop and she was positive that her everything would end.  The desperate madness took her mind and then was eased slowly away by the thrumming.  There were no thoughts, no self, no Charlie, just this just the music.  As her fingers finished their delicate dance across the surface, she knew that she moaned then.  When the blackness took her, she welcomed it.


	2. Chapter 2

Charlie’s first waking thoughts were “What a lovely nap.”  Followed quickly by, “Fucking hell, the test.”  Soon to be followed by, “Ugh, I’m wet.”

She quickly sat up and opened her eyes, which is when all of the previous thoughts coalesced into one succinct question. 

“What.  The.  Fuck?”

She was sitting in a jungle.  A real, honest to god, South American Amazon style jungle, it came complete with tall trees with bases wider than she was tall.  Charlie craned her neck up to stare at a canopy of limbs and leaves.  She couldn’t see a sky, but the jungle was lit well enough for it to still be fairly early in the day.  She laid there staring at the impossibility of her situation.  She could not find a single logical answer for this.  Charlie had lived in Florida her entire life and while most of that had taken place in a city; she knew that none of this foliage was native to her home state. 

_Was I attacked?_ She asked herself.

_Oh yes, the devious plan of dragging a poor crippled 25 year old student to South America and leaving her there.  Dastardly!_

Even her snarky comeback did little to help her mood or bewilderment.

So she decided to turn her attention to more immediate concerns.  Like the fact that she was wet.  Charlie reached around and touched her back, while keeping a wary eye on her surroundings.  She had watched enough nature documentaries to know of the many many dangers of the Amazon.  At least in Florida, she could easily identify the dangers both in and out of the water.  Charlie wasn’t easily scared, but she had seen enough cottonmouths, eastern diamondbacks, and gators in the wild to know that caution is a hell of a good thing.  The problem was that she didn’t have an internal encyclopedia of the wildlife for this jungle.  Hell, she wasn’t even sure which jungle that was. 

After confirming that she was in fact damp, she came to the truly brilliant conclusion that it was because she had been laying in mud.  

_Alright first things first, I’ve got to stand up on my own.  Not my favorite thing to do, but we all have to start somewhere._

Charlie began the often painful and tedious task of getting upright.  She rolled over onto left side and got onto her stomach, then braced her hands under her as if was about to do a pushup.  She then slowly curled her left leg up to a crouch.  This was usually the painful part, as it would shift her right hip and it always felt like she could feel the pins screaming a protest.  The doctors assured her that was in her mind or psychosomatic, but fuck them they don’t know shit.  It hurts. 

Charlie braced herself for the strain and then pain, but it never came.  Her left leg and hip complied quickly and easily to the commands her brain sent them.  So she stood up.  She stood up more quickly than she was used to and the weight of brace decided that it would take that moment to shift her off balance.  There was nothing for her to do, but shout “Fuck!” and fall heavily to the ground.  Again she braced herself for incredible pain and again none came.  Well other than where the brace pinched her skin and where her bum was sore from an abrupt introduction to the ground. 

Charlie was stunned.  For the first time since she woke up she glanced down to her legs.  What she found was more shocking and terrifying than waking up alone in a strange jungle.  Her legs were smaller.  Her pants were, at least, a few sizes too small and her leg brace was loose.  Like it didn’t fit and would either need to be adjusted or more likely replaced.  Charlie just sat there touching her legs.  She quickly rolled up the pant leg on her left side and giggled at what she saw, toned lean muscle.  She knew these were her legs, she remembered the way they looked in those ridiculous and wonderful rugby shorts covered in mud.  A thought occurred to her and grabbed her torso and worked her way up to her chest and over and down her arms.  Everywhere she touched was her body before that nasty hit and fall, back when she spent most of her off-hours in the gym or on the field.  She sat there giggling like an idiot.  Then she touched her hair, it was incredibly short.  She had never had really long hair, but she couldn’t remember it being this short.  The sides were buzzed, but the top … the top was longer.  She pulled it into her eyes and stared at it. 

Blue.

It was neon blue.

“But … I’ve only dyed my hair once.” 

Charlie had only had blue hair one time.  It was the year she joined the Rebels.  The girls told her that long hair was a liability on the field, they were right, and whisked her away to a salon.  She was trying to decide what to get when Karen had started teasing her and informed Charlie that she was in fact too girly looking.  Well that was also true.  Even with the muscles and the height, she always had a large chest.  She just could not get rid of it.  It made any kind of uniform a pain and it made running a terrible sport.  So Karen announced to the hairdresser that Charlie was going to rock a faux-hawk and that it was going to be bright blue.  Charlie wasn’t really sure she liked the style, but her mother’s face when she got home that night made up her mind and she kept it.

However, that was when she was fifteen, but she’s twenty-five now.

She slowly stood up again and looked down at herself.

_But I don’t look twenty-five.  I look fifteen._

_I’m fifteen._

_I’m in a jungle._

_I’m a child._

_Holy fuck._

After standing there like an idiot for a few minutes, hours, whatever.  Charlie started unbuckling her brace.  She had some reason and it was logical, naturally, but the real reason she was taking it off was … she was curious.  If her hip was fine then maybe she was fifteen again.  Maybe the past ten years had been a dream.  That didn’t explain her being in this jungle, but it was the only theory she had really.

The brace fell off and she started to tentatively stretch her legs.  Within minutes she was doing jumping jacks and whooping like a little schoolgirl. Then she did the only sensible thing and punted the brace into the jungle. 

The thrill of being young, healthy, and strong had not quite left Charlie, but it was definitely being tempered by caution of the jungle.  She decided that the best course of action was to take stock of her supplies and then find the trail of whoever had left her there and follow it.  The supplies were easy.  One filthy black t-shirt, one equally as filthy pair of jeans, one pair of sandals, her wallet, and a Swiss army knife.  The biggest problem was her pants.  They were so loose that they were in constant danger of falling off of her.  Of course this didn’t come as any great surprise as she had effectively lost about 70 lbs.  So Charlie used the knife and put a new notch in her belt.  When that task was complete, she reverently kissed the knife and slipped it back in her pocket.

“Thank you, Grandpa.”  She announced to no one in particular.

Other than her precious multi-tool, her supplies were pitiful.  The wallet contained a multitude of receipts, cards, her ID, and a paltry four dollars.  Charlie violently shoved the wallet back in her pants.  With her resources, or rather lack thereof, now accounted for she turned her attention to the jungle.

She had awoken in a small sort of clearing, which was a generous description of the place.  The predominant foliage was a large leafy fern, while it, thankfully, didn’t bear any thorns it had the annoying tendency to cling to her clothing.  The floor was a carpet of dead leaves and rotting plants which covered a layer of thick black mud.  Charlie slowly paced the small clearing cursing every god but her bubbe’s and could not find a single track or broken path anywhere.  She stared up at the unbroken canopy of trees and then back at the muddy floor, before letting loose a cry of frustration.

“I mean, I’m not a fucking girl scout, but come on.  You don’t drag an unconscious chick through a jungle without leaving some kind of evidence.”  She gave the jungle carpet a murderous glare.  The carpet, however resisted her intimidation tactic and provided no answers. 

Frustration was quickly becoming her primary emotion as she wrestled with it.  “Okay”, she slapped herself, “Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht, you’re a grown woman get it together.  If you can’t find a path just make your own and we’ll go from there.” 

So she picked the easiest direction to traverse and headed into the unknown jungle.  Panic was attempting to sink its filthy claws into her mind.  So Charlie used her age old tactic of talking to herself.  She was aware that this might be seen as insanity, but she had always thought that that was ridiculous.  Just because a truly crazy person talked to themselves, did not mean that everyone who talked to themselves were crazy.  Causation does not imply correlation.  Crazy people usually had hair too, but that does not mean that everyone with hair is crazy.  Charlie was not crazy.  Charlie was a former twenty-five year old turned fifteen year old, but that did not mean she was crazy.  Charlie was not crazy.  To prove that she wasn’t crazy she recounted the morning’s events.  Spent the night playing a video game, kissed Justin, drove to school, snarked at Tim … and then.  The pillar? 

Charlie stopped walking

_The pillar?_

_No, that’s crazy.  This isn’t a fairytale or a video game, this is actually happening.  Magical pillars don’t exist and if you continue this train of thought maybe you truly are crazy.  Look you know this is real, Char.  You’re sweating from the heat, the little scratches from where that branch grabbed you kind of stings, and you can smell the musky odor of rotting plant life.  No, sweetie, this is real.  Therefore if this is real, then there must be a logical reason as to how you came to be here.  We’ll figure it out._

Charlie resumed her trek through the dense jungle.  However, the nagging thoughts of what was and what wasn’t real continued to plague her. 

She wasn’t sure how long she had been walking.  The only timepiece she ever had was her phone and that was in her bag and that was back on the bench.  Right?  Yeah she definitely left it back on the bench next Tim. 

_Tim._

_Nope don’t think about it.  Just keep walking.  Now is not the time._

Anyways Charlie wasn’t sure what time it was, but the jungle appeared to be rapidly darkening.  That was more than a little disconcerting.  She had yet to see much wildlife though.  A few birds she didn’t recognize and quite a few lizards and a couple of snakes.  The snakes she gave a wide berth to, but they appeared to be of the constrictor variety so she wasn’t terribly concerned about them.  However, she was well aware that most jungle wildlife was primarily nocturnal and that was a valid concern.  Especially since she had never hunted and was armed with naught, but a pocket knife.

Charlotte froze.  She heard something.  That something was grunting and sounded like it was digging. 

_A dog._

_Dogs don’t grunt, idiot._

_Uh … a pig?_

_Pigs are domesticated. Come on you can do this, I believe in you._

_Shit, a boar._

_We have a winner._

With this inner monologue running through her mind, she crouched down in the underbrush and attempted to quietly peer out at the boar.  She had never seen a real boar before, but she was well aware that a wild boar was a force to be reckoned with and should be avoided at any cost.  She quietly unfolded the tiny pocket knife, though she was fairly certain it was useless against anything larger than a puppy.  It still made her feel better though.

Charlie’s eyes sought and found the beast.  That wasn’t a boar.  That was something else.  It was definitely boar-shaped, but it had scales.  It had scales and spines.  It had scales and spines and was huge.  At least four feet tall and more than double that in length. 

_Is it a dinosaur?_

_Your guess is literally as good as mine, kiddo._

_Crap._

Charlie must have made some sort of noise, because the beast (and it was truly a beast) snapped its head and looked straight at her.  Charlie liked to consider herself a brave woman.  She had been in a number of bar fights in her time and had taken on women twice her size on the field with little to no trepidation.  She had gone swimming in springs and lakes with some truly massive gators and one time was almost struck by a rattlesnake.  Each one of those times, she had handled herself with dignity and wisdom and had simply gotten out of the way of danger.  However, when the beast roared at her and charged, Charlie froze and screamed.

Two shots rang through the jungle followed quickly by two more.  The beast staggered, let out a pitiful whine, and slumped to the ground with a heavy thump.  Of course, this didn’t particularly help Charlie’s frazzled state.  Her screaming stopped and left her shaking and crying.  There was no inner monologue, there was only the realization that she could have died.  She could have died a horrible and undoubtedly painful death. 

“Hey, hey” The strange voice that belonged to a man said softly.  A hand reached out and gently touched her arm.

To Charlie it felt like an attack, everything felt like it was about to attack her.  Her world had just become very real and if she had given it any thought she would have realized that her previous ruminations over the philosophy of what is and isn’t real were laughable.  This right here was real, the world looked sharp and it was like her eyes could see every detail.  She had two options: fight or flight.  She chose fight.

Charlie’s knife hand went sweeping up to the man’s face.  She felt like she was moving quickly, but the man easily gripped her wrist and prevented the attack.  However he didn’t see her leg shooting out simultaneously to kick his knee.  With a feral cry, Charlie threw herself on the man and the two of them hit ground with a grunt.  Now straddling the prone and winded man who had 165 lbs of crazy on his chest, she tried to punch his face with her free left hand.  Again he grabbed her wrist, he may have been saying something to her, but she was not the mood to decipher his speech.  Both of her hands were captured and he was wrestling them around to her back.  However, her head was free so she slammed that down onto his face with an audible crunch. 

“Son of a bitch!”  The mystery man cursed at her.

Head butts are not a fun tactic.  It’s true that they look really cool in movies or games, but in actual practice they should only be used as a true last resort.  Mostly because you are just as likely to injure yourself as the person you are attacking.  So unless you are wearing some kind of protective gear on your face, which of course would look ridiculous not to mention tacky, we cannot recommend it.

The pain from aforementioned head butt was enough to stun Charlie out of the panic induced attack.  She just sat there on the stranger’s chest staring dumbly at his bloodied nose. 

“Huh” She eloquently stated.

The man quickly took charge and flipped her to the ground and pinned her down her down with his weight. 

“Okay, you ready stop now?” 

She just stared at him.  Her body hadn’t quite caught up to what was happening and was violently trembling.  The blood from his nose had started to drip down on her face.  Charlie knew she must be covered in it.  Her face was covered in this stranger’s blood.  She remembered the boar’s fate and the sound that was definitely some kind of gun. 

_I attacked a strange man in a jungle and he has a gun.  Shit, he’s going to kill me._

Her body didn’t know what to make of this revelation so it concluded that the only logical response was to vomit.

Charlie found herself on her hands and knees five minutes later with the contents of her stomach laying in a disgusting pool on the jungle floor. 

_Weird, when did I have barbecue?_

“Here, take this.”  The man offered her a piece of cloth.

She took it and mumbled a thanks.  After cleaning her face, Charlie stood and gave the man an apologetic glance.

“Sorry about the face.” 

“It’s nothing.  I’ve had worse.”  After a moment he added.  “So what the hell are you doing out here?”

Charlie had no response to that.  So she gave him a shrug and a shake of her head.

“Alright.  Well unless you want to spend the night out here.  We better get moving.”  He tossed Charlie her now folded knife and started walking away.

Charlie stood there holding her knife and his rag.  She looked back at the now very dead beast and then back at the strange man’s rapidly disappearing back. 

_So, I guess this isn’t much of a choice._

Her legs agreed and she quickly caught up with the man.

The man’s name turned out to be Ethan Wallis and though they didn’t talk much as he steadily led her through the jungle.  Ethan was a few inches taller that Charlie and appeared to be mostly built of solid muscle.  His accent was decidedly southern US, but she wasn’t sure exactly which state.  Probably Georgia or Alabama, she decided.  He had a military buzzcut and carried himself like a soldier.  His clothes were unremarkable, camo pants, dark brown shirt, and boots.

_Yes, definitely military.  Well that’s a relief.  They can get me home._

There was only one thing about Ethan that concerned Charlie, his gun.  As they trudged through the jungle, she stared at it.  It was definitely a weapon she decided and as she couldn’t see any other gun it had to be the one she had heard.  However, it didn’t look like any gun had ever seen.  It didn’t appear to have a barrel and it was too blocky.  It looked like a rectangular block with a grip and a stock.  It was so strange and felt completely out of place, but there it was anyway slung over Ethan’s shoulder.

Ethan came to an abrupt stop and out a high whistle.  A few seconds later a light flashed from up high and he continued walking.  Charlie was on the verge of asking him about it when they walked out of the jungle completely and into some sort of field.  It was completely dark, but she could make out neat dirt rows in the ground on either side of the narrow dirt path they were walking on.  Off in the distance were lights, real lights, florescent man-made light.  Charlie wanted to giggle with happiness, there were people here.  Everything was going to be alright.  It wasn’t civilization, but it was a far cry from the muggy jungle that was apparently filled with dinosaurs. 

The dino-boar thing still bothered her. 

However, the prospect of a shower and bed was in front of her and that outweighed any thoughts of the earlier terror. 

There were a few people wandering about as they neared the buildings.  The adults she saw were relaxing and socializing and there were a few very dirty and happy children running around.  When they saw Charlie though every single person reacted the same way, they stopped and stared at her.  Unabashed staring.  She offered them smiles and a wave, but only a few reciprocated the sentiment.  Charlie was starting to get very nervous about where she was.  The previous feeling of safety and civilization was replaced by fear. 

So with Dueling Banjos playing in her head, they came to a stop in front of one the identical plastic buildings. 

Ethan turned and gave her a stern, but not unkindly face.  “Now my wife’s a doctor.  So I’ll have her give you a once over.”  He glanced down at Charlie’s now bare and filthy feet.

“You should have told me you lost the shoes.”

“One of the thongs ripped off and I don’t know where the other one went.”  She shrugged.  “Besides there wasn’t anything you could have done.”

Ethan shrugged and pointed to a hose, “Rinse your feet before you come in.”  Then he walked through the door. 

The water felt better than it should have and was blessedly cold.  Charlie grimaced at the cuts that covered her feet.  She never really liked to wear shoes and preferred the option and going barefoot whenever possible, so she always wore sandals.  Right now, though for one of the first times in her life she wished she had put on actual shoes, preferably large heavy combat boots. 

With her feet as clean as they were going to get, she walked up the steps and into to the house.  The décor was simple, but weird.  The front door opened into a living room with a couch and armchair.  It should have felt familiar, but the patterns and style were wrong.  The colors were a bright purple and the design was an intricate looping floral design.  The word garish did not come close to describe them.   Voices coming from a back room interrupted her thoughts about the dubious tastes of the interior decorator; and she found herself following the noise.  There were some pictures lining the hall and she gave them a glance as she passed.  Ethan and a woman in a white wedding dress.  The same woman giving a naked baby a bath.  Ethan and a group of men saluting something off camera. 

_Yup, like I thought.  Soldier._

Charlie knocked on the door with the voices when she turned back to the picture with the soldiers.  Those weren’t soldiers.  She didn’t recognize the uniform.  The cut and color was wrong. 

_The hell?_

The door was opened by a very small woman with smiling eyes and brown hair swept up in a bun.  The height difference was significant and Charlie subconsciously tried to make herself look smaller. 

“Well don’t just stand there.  Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and into a bed.”  The tiny woman swept the giant woman into the room and sat her down on a counter top next to Ethan.  The room, Charlie decided, was definitely familiar.  It was a brightly lit patient room, with a bed in the corner covered with a plastic sheet.  _Could be worse she could have made me sit there._   With the exception of the wall with the bed, the walls were lined with cupboards and cabinet, with various instruments attached to walls.  Charlie didn’t know or care enough about medicine to know or care what they did. 

Debbie, when she finally introduced herself, did not stop talking and Charlie effectively ignored her after she was sure that what was being said wasn’t actually important.  Debbie moved in quick and precise movements as she sterilized Charlie’s feet and then proceeded to rub an ointment into the cuts.  Then she covered Charlie’s feet with a clear plastic, that looked suspiciously like saran wrap.  Charlie was confused, but that was really nothing new.  Nothing today made any sense.  Logic decided to take a vacation and did not give Charlie a two week notice. 

“I said,” Debbie was patiently repeating. “Just sit here for a few minutes and don’t stand until the gel finishes its job.”

“Oh right.”

Deborah gave Charlie a sympathetic look.  “Well do you want to tell me who you are?”

“Charlie.”

Debbie raised eyebrows expectantly.

“Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht.”

Debbie was writing this down on a tablet and raised one eyebrow at her.

“N-A-C-H-T”

“Thank you.  Do you want to tell me how you ended up in the jungle or do you want to wait till the morning?”

“Morning, if that’s ok.” Charlie paused.  “Is there a shower I could use?”

“Oh, of course and Ethan is getting the spare room set up now.”

Charlie let a real smile replace the fake one she had plastered on when she first met the doctor.  Debbie was busy removing the wrap off of Charlie’s feet.

“Ok, wiggle your toes and tell me how they feel.”

Charlie foot felt cold when it was exposed to the air and the warm tingling feeling was quickly fading.  With a smirk at the doctor she wiggled her toes obnoxiously and then looked down at them.

They were perfect.  Well they were still Charlie’s size 11 feet with the long toes and the slightly longer second toe, but they were healed.  There weren’t even any scars.  Charlie grabbed her foot and pulled it to her face and closely examined it.  The skin was rather sensitive and not just where the cuts had been, but everywhere the gel had touched. 

“What did you do?”  Charlie tried to keep the accusative tone out of her voice, but failed.

“Honey, it’s just medi-gel.  Now scoot off to the shower.” 

_Medi-gel.  That’s a word I know.  I know that from something._

The shower was so deliciously steamy, that Charlie stepped in fully dressed and washed the mud away before stripping down.  After scrubbing down three or four times, Charlie regretfully turned off the water and toweled off.  The foggy mirror seemed to taunt her.  She had yet to see her new-old body properly.

_What if my face is different?  I might not be me._

_Would that be so bad?_

_Yes._

Charlie took a deep breath, pulled the towel off and wiped the mirror down. 

“It’s me.”  She giggled.

“Well it’s me when I was younger, but fuck it I’m still me.”

_Fifteen._

_Yes, fifteen, but I don’t care.  Besides look at my chest, I forgot they started out this high up._

Humming to herself she draped her clothes over a bar in the shower, collected her tool and wallet, and slipped on the shirt and shorts left in the room for her.  Charlie had never been a vain woman, but the many years of a sedentary life had left their unattractive mark on her self-image and seeing the girl in the mirror with the her old body was almost too much.  She wanted to be nothing but happy at the youthful face, but there was a strange longing in her for her old body.  The scars weren’t pretty, but they told the tale of the past 10 years of her life.  The broken mess was what Justin fell in love with, he never even knew this girl.  Only her mind was the same and she wasn’t sure if she could trust that anymore. 

_Justin is probably terrified right now._

So, it wasn’t the giddy child who left the bathroom, was directed to a small bedroom, and crawled under the covers clutching her only possessions; it was the grown woman who was missing her best friend and lover.  Justin.  That sweet man who didn’t care that walking hurt her and instead taught her to play guitar and drive stick shifts, so loving and kind that she was sure he was the polar opposite of her.  She missed him.  Justin knew her crazy and she knew his.  And his brand of crazy could not handle her disappearing like this.  It would break him.  Charlie would break him, just like he had feared.

_You can’t even prove that he’s real.  You can’t prove he loved you._

With that thought the events of the day truly came crashing down around Charlie and she finally broke down and cried.  Charlie knew how to cry, she had done so many times over the years, less after Justin found her, but the tears were still known to happen.  She knew that this was going to be a cry that wouldn’t end tonight.  This would be an ache that stayed and left a scar. 

Laid there for awhile gripping her only two possessions and she had a thought.  She opened her wallet and sifted through the cards with a sort of desperate panic.  When she slid the card she was looking for out of the sliding plastic, her hands were visibly trembling.  Charlie lifted the card to the window and tilted it so it reflected the light and read it.

Her face.

Her face and name.

Her face and name and birth date.

_1987_

She kissed the card and went to sleep gripping the most precious item she had ever owned.  Her Florida driver’s license.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so another chapter, I hope someone enjoys it. I have so many more already written, but I think I'm going to try and space them out a little bit.
> 
> Bubbe doesn't necessarily mean grandmother, but in this context Charlie is referring to her grandmother.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meshungina is an endearing term for a crazy person. 
> 
> Shtup ir means "Fuck you". I'm not sure on the spelling for this one, because we always just yelled it at each other.
> 
> Oy vey ist mir means "Oh woe is me".

Morning came unbidden as it always does.  We would love to tell you, dear reader, that Charlie awoke sweetly in sun-warmed sheets.  That wouldn’t be fair to you, because it would be a fantastical lie. 

Charlotte Nacht woke up tangled in stiflingly hot sheets, with a bright light in her eyes, a too warm body next to her, and another body on her feet. 

“Barnabus!  Get off the bed.”  She yelled at her boyfriend’s dog and kicked him off the bed.  She started to push Justin off of her when her brain informed that this body was far too light and was giggling.  She took a cautious peek at the bed intruder and saw a little brown-haired girl smiling with all of the innocence and joy that can only exist when you’re five. 

“Doggy fell off the bed.”  Charlie was informed in between giggles.

Charlie’s heart was racing, this wasn’t her bed and yesterday hadn’t been some strange stress dream and she wasn’t able to come to this conclusion gradually on her own.  A little ball of giggles was informing her of this truth.  Thankfully for Grace Talitha, she was simply too adorable to be angry at.  Not that she was unaware of this fact, Grace was well aware that there were few things she couldn’t do if she just smiled and giggled.  So she knew exactly how Charlie was going to react, even before Charlie was aware of it.

Charlie walked into the kitchen with the bundle of giggles tucked under one arm and the other arm was busy keeping Grace well supplied with aforementioned giggles.  Debbie gave Charlie an alarmed look. 

Charlie set the girl down, “I’m sorry, Debbie.  She was just … I woke up and … ”

Debbie raised a hand to stop the flustered girl.  “It’s ok.  You’re fine.  I’m sorry that she woke you up.”  She gave Grace a mock stern look, “One day you’re going to have to learn some manners.”

Brazenly ignoring her mother, Grace ran out of the room under the premise of “Gonna get doggy.”

With a full night of sleep and a much clearer head, Charlie was able to appraise Deborah Wallis.  Deborah could not have been much older than Charlie, well old Charlie not this new young Charlie.  The woman was probably in her early thirties, Charlie surmised.  As she ate the breakfast that Deborah offered her, she tried to get a handle on the situation. 

_So I’m in the home of a young couple, an Ex-military and a doctor, they have a young daughter.  I’m definitely in some kind of small village.  Commune hippies?_

_Well that doesn’t really fit with the rather excellent medical care you received last night._

_I refuse to believe that I’m on some secret government base located in the Amazon.  This is not the X-Files._

_So the whole waking up in a rainforest and then being attacked by a dinosaur isn’t weird at all?  I mean you have to, at least, admit that Mulder would find this all a little bit intriguing._

_True.  However, there wasn’t really enough security around the outskirts for this to be a base, hell I didn’t even see a fence.  I’m not going to pretend to understand this, but it just doesn’t fit._

Debbie kept Charlie in her peripheral vision while she cleaned up the kitchen.  She thought that the poor girl looked lost.  She was fairly positive that Charlie was young, but there was something in the way the girl carried herself that struck Debbie as odd.  Charlie seemed to favor her left side, which was strange since she was clearly right handed.  The girl’s face seemed off as well, she looked troubled and old.  Debbie exhaled as she put the last of the dishes away.  She was afraid she knew Charlie’s story before the girl had a chance to tell it.  She had seen these signs before.  It was one of the reasons that Debbie had decided that a quiet colony life was preferable to the bustle of an emergency room.

“So.”  Debbie plastered on her best gentle doctor face.  “Why don’t we step in the office and see if I can give you a full work up and make sure you didn’t pick up something nasty in the jungle.”

“Sure.”

“And maybe I can get you to give me a few details of your story?”

“Oh, uh, yeah.  I can probably do that.”

Debbie led Charlie back the same patient room and offered her a chair.   Then she pulled a small device off of the wall and proceeded to move it around Charlie’s body.

“Ethan tells me that you don’t remember how you got here?”

“Yeah that’s right.”

“Well what do you remember?”

“Well I was at school and I guess I just blacked out.  Because the next thing I knew I was waking up in this rainforest.”

“Where was this school?”

“Florida.  Well Jacksonville, Fl; if I’m being specific.”

Debbie almost dropped the device and gave Charlie a really strange look.  Charlie thought it looked like disbelief, with a little bit of something else … sympathy?  She perfectly understood the emotion of disbelief, feh, that’s been her primary emotion for the past twenty-four hours. 

“Florida?”

Charlie nodded her head.

“Earth?”

Charlie twisted her face up into the best “duh” look she had and nodded her head again.

“What was the date?”

“I’m not really sure.  I think it was the second week in October?”

Charlie had a sinking feeling.  Like her heart was attempting to reposition itself lower in her anatomy.  She whispered, “Why?”

Debbie closed the scanner and set a reassuring hand on her patient’s shoulder.  “Well it’s January 4.”

“Where am I?  You asked if I was from Earth, which implies that there is an option that isn’t Earth.”

Charlie wasn’t concerned with the date.  So what if it’s a different month?  She just lost ten years, what was a few months?  Charlie had this gnawing ache in her chest that she knew where this conversation was going, but she wanted to hear the words out loud.

“You’re on Mindoir.”  In response to Charlie’s blank look, she added.  “That’s in the Attican Traverse.”

_Attican Traverse … medi-gel …_

Charlie knew that she should know this.  It was like a whisper in the back of her mind.  She was fighting the urge to panic.  Charlie just couldn’t quite make the pieces fit.  She tried to coax that little voice to tell her the truth, but it decided to remain frustratingly quiet.

“What year is it?” She asked the floor.

“2169”

Charlie knew that Debbie was continuing to speak.  She could feel the woman walking around the room, no doubt continuing whatever tests she was going to run.  However, Charlie could not be bothered with this information.  Her mind was in shambles.  2169?  How could that be right, she thought. 

_Maybe I am crazy._

_If you were crazy, then that makes me crazy and I don’t buy it._

Charlie was not convinced by her reasonable voice’s opinion, but wisely chose not to argue the point.  Her mind was in shambles, rapid-fire questions were being asked and she didn’t have the brainpower to answer them all.  The connotations of Debbie’s revelation were massive.  How did I get here, Where is Earth, What happened to all the people I knew, What form of technology got us out here, Did the warp field theory actually have merit, What happened in Game of Thrones?  The pure absurdity of that last question caused Charlie to shake her head and take a deep breath.  With a monumental effort she locked down the constant stream of queries and let her logical mind come to the forefront.

_So I’m either in 2169 or I’m not, right?_

_Correct._

_If I am in 2169, then that would mean I travelled to my relative future.  However, if I am not in 2169, then that means Debbie is lying to me._

_Again correct.  So putting aside any thoughts of time travel, does Debbie have any reason to lie to you?  What would she gain from this?_

Charlie gave the woman a calculating stare.  Debbie was in the process of taking a blood sample from Charlie and assumed that the glare was due to the pain.  “Sorry dear, it’s just a prick.  I’ll be done in a minute.”

The woman looked normal enough to Charlie.  Blue shirt and khaki pants underneath a lab coat were decidedly not nefarious and her face was filled with kind emotions and the hint of pity was still there.  Charlie resumed her steady stare at the floor, she hated pity.  Pity from doctors was the worst kind of pity.  She knew that look so well.  Every time they told her that she needed to resume physical therapy or the swelling would never go down, every time they hinted at the possibility of her losing her ability to walk at all, and each one of those times she would lose her tentative control of her temper and usually throw something at them while letting loose a stream of curses that would have made her Rabbi blush.  Each one of those visits ended with the same look of pity.

Charlie gave the floor a scowl in retaliation for making her think of the memory.

_She looks nice enough.  Why would she lie?_

_Oh?  She’s a nice person?  Well by all means trust her with then.  Of course if you do that means you are willing to accept the idea that it’s 2169, but you’re right if someone seems nice then you should just go ahead and trust them._

_Shtup ir._

_Shame shame, such language coming from your mouth.  What would bubbe say?_

_She’d probably agree._

“Alright Charlie, I’m all done here.  I know Ethan waiting for you in the living room if you wouldn’t mind heading out there.”

Charlie stood up out of the chair and looked down at the tiny woman.  Not sure if she should trust her, she gave her a wary glance and heading out to the living room to find Ethan.

She found Ethan sitting on the couch watching Grace build a fort out of pillows and garish cushions.  Ethan asked Charlie a few polite, general questions about where she was from.  He didn’t want to scare the girl off, but the wary and distrusting looks she kept shooting him forced him to treat her like a wounded animal.  “I can’t help but notice that your accent isn’t quite what I expected from a Floridian.”  He cautiously probed.

The question was not unfamiliar to Charlie.  She grew up in Jacksonville, but in a small Jewish community with her grandparents so, especially when she was flustered or under stress, her voice would mimic her bubbe’s with all the exaggerated high tones. 

“Well _I_ was raised in Florida, but my family is from New York.  You know, the ‘Great Jewish Exodus’.”  She gave Ethan a smirk as if that explained it all. 

The look on Ethan’s face meant that her explanation was clearly insufficient.  “My Bubbe was the classic New York Jew, my grandfather wasn’t, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.  Anyways they all picked up and moved to the Sunshine State after my mother, God rest her soul, decided it was a fantastic time to start showing.”  She placed her hands over her stomach in mimicry of pregnancy. 

Ethan sat there with his mouth open as if he was going to say something, but decided to drop it.  He cleared his throat and asked something else.  “So, you’re Jewish?”  He spaced the words out, desperately hoping that he wasn’t saying something offensive.

“Well that’s what my rabbi tells me anyway.”  Charlie gave a soft chuckle at the inside joke.  She had never really been sure she actually believed in God or if was all just stories, but Moishe Applebaum had informed her, time and time again, that this actually made her a very good Jew.  He encouraged her skepticism and engaged her in heated philosophical arguments weekly.  Charlie had to admit that they were really good arguments and that the stories weren’t bad either.  She felt a sudden pang of homesickness for the nights full of good food, copious amounts of wine, and the heat of the same old argument with the old man.

**_“You’re telling me that this ‘all-powerful and all-knowing’ God of yours just looked at Sodom and Gomorrah and thought ‘Hey I just noticed those guys are doing some weird stuff.  Guess I should kill them or whatever.’  Never mind that there were innocent people living there.  I mean I’m not so sure that I can get behind that kind of malicious god.”_ **

**_Applebaum studied his wine before taking a drink and raised a finger at her.  “I have never said that he was a kind.”_ **

**_He saw the glint in Charlie’s eyes that said she was about to spout Epicurus at him.  “I would also like to point out that what is all this about ‘your God’?  I was there for you bat mitzvah, meshungina, I know that He’s yours too.”  He raised his hand as her protest was sure to be forthcoming.  “No, don’t try denying it.  He’s got you now.”_ **

Charlie twisted her lips in a small smirk at the memory and then turned her attention back to Ethan. 

“I’m sorry for prying, I’ve just never met a Jew before.  I mean it’s kind of like someone telling me that they’re a gypsy …” He stopped that sentence at the raised eyebrow that Charlie was giving him.  “Again, sorry.”  He finished lamely.

_I guess there wouldn’t be many of us left in 2169._

_Oh so you’re saying you believe this now?_

_Not quite yet._

 

* * *

 

 

Deborah was not sure what to make of the scans she had taken of Charlotte.  First there were the broken bones; they had not been knitted at all.  It appeared that they had been set, thankfully they had been set by someone with enough knowledge to set them properly, but the doctor hadn’t used a bone knitter so she could still see the scar tissue.  Her nose had also taken quite the abuse.  It had been broken and re-broken more times than Dr. Wallis cared to count.  Then there was the lack of a birth control implant.  It was possible that she had refused the device, but it was part the basic healthcare package on Earth.  Speaking of healthcare there was also the minor problem of the lack of vitamins in Charlotte’s system.  It was as if she had never had the puberty vitamin regiment that every human was given on Earth.  The most troubling discovery had been the brain scan.  The girl had had multiple concussions in the past year alone and none of them had been properly treated, as far she was concerned.  They, again thankfully, had not been severe enough for permanent brain damage, but they were indicative of something.

“Systemic long term abuse”   Deborah informed her husband, after she called him away from the living room. 

“I don’t know where she came from or how she got here, but she has not been treated well.”

Ethan pondered his wife’s revelation.  He wasn’t surprised, but that didn’t make it any less disturbing.  Charlotte’s cautious way of moving, her distrusting stares, and even her panicked attack in the jungle; they all spoke of fear. 

“Are you thinking it was slavers?”

“I can’t say for sure.  There wasn’t any control chip or a scar.”  Debbie drew a ragged breath, “She could have been a game for those monsters.  I can’t say for sure, I didn’t run a rape kit.  I don’t want to scare her.  Ethan, she had some nasty scars.  They, like everything else about her, have not been properly treated.  It was like they just stitched her up with thread.”  She put a hand on Ethan’s arm and looked straight up into his eyes, hers were gleaming with fury.  “Ethan, no one uses thread anymore.”

Ethan gave Debbie’s arm a comforting pat.  “If it’s slavers, then we have to find out what she knows.  If they’re here …”

Debbie raised her hand at Ethan and put her clinical doctor’s face back on, “Ethan, you talked to the girl.  I don’t think she’s going to be able to tell us anything.  It might be some form of PTSD and her mind is refusing to admit what happened.  I’ve seen this quite a few times before.”

Ethan opened his mouth to protest that it doesn’t matter if she’s damaged, because they need to know if the slavers are here.  Debbie cut in before he could voice the opinion though.  “Even if she could tell us, what would that change?  We always knew that we were going to be out-manned and out-gunned if we were ever attacked.  If, and I honestly do not have a better explanation for it, it is the slavers, there is nothing we can do about it.  We already had our trade drop for the year and the Alliance isn’t going to do a damn thing for a couple hundred separatists on the fringe of space, you know that better than anyone else.

“The way I see it, our best option is to take this as an advanced warning and shore up our defenses.  However that is your call not mine, love.”

Ethan rubbed his eyes and looked miserable.  Damn the woman, she was right as usual.  There wasn’t anything he could do about it.  Maybe if the girl had some time to realize her safety here, she could heal and then maybe she would tell them what they needed to know.  Time, however, was something he wasn’t sure they had.  He had seen enough broken combat veterans to know that being pushy and demanding they get better, didn’t do a damn thing.  He exhaled and nodded his head at his wife.

“The others aren’t going to like this.” He paused then looked back at Debbie, “How old is she?”

“I’m not positive, but she’s either fifteen or sixteen.”

“Damn, I didn’t think she’d be so young.”

 

* * *

 

 

As it turned out, Ethan’s prophetic statements regarding the rest of the colonist’s opinion on Charlotte turned to be true.  They did not like it.  The founding members he spoke with were, putting it mildly, enraged.  He understood, but he wasn’t sure what the hell they wanted him to do differently.  Was he supposed to leave a muddy teenage girl in the jungle?  He reminded them all that they had put _him_ in charge of security and if he had not deemed her a security risk, then they had better deal with that.  They had then informed Ethan that if she was going to continue staying on Mindoir that she was now his personal responsibility. 

In the end, they agreed with his recommendation of beefing up the watches and also informing the rest of the community to be on guard for a possible attack.  They didn’t want to mention the possibility of it being a slaver attack, because that would definitely panic the civilians.  So they left it as just a blanket warning. 

So Ethan found himself walking back to his house that afternoon in a grim mood.  He was going to have to find some way to deal with the girl.  For six years they had called Mindoir home and in those six years there hadn’t been any problems.  It had been tough to stake a claim here on the planet, both politically and physically.  Politically the Alliance had been against the idea.  Of course the Alliance was against most the ideas the Sons of Sol toted.  The Sons of Sol tried to have their voices heard on Earth.  They were against the terrorists acts of other institutions with similar manifestos, but the media lumped them all together nonetheless.  All they really wanted was for a little more caution when dealing with the alien races.  Shanxi was a disaster and the Sons of Sol definitely wanted the war with the turians to end, but that did not mean that they should trust them either.  The Alliance definitely shouldn’t trust the rest of the galactic community, who had simply shut their eyes and stuck their fingers in their ears during the war.  However that’s exactly what the Alliance was doing.  The Sons of Sol decided that they had had enough of the bickering and completely useless politics and after years of trying finally got permission to start a small colony on Mindoir.  Like everyone else here on Mindoir, Ethan had his own reasons for being here.  He had served on Shanxi, he knew the cost of war with the turians and he wasn’t convinced that they weren’t going to try and finish what they started.  They didn’t seem like a race that was accustomed to losing and he didn’t want his Debbie on Earth when the inevitable war came. 

So they came to Mindoir with a small enough group that they hopefully wouldn’t be seen as profitable target to the batarians and cut ties to the System Alliance.  Six years of hard labor and taming the wild landscape into farmland.  Six years of very little trouble, until yesterday.  As he approached the house he saw Charlie standing in the small yard staring slack-jawed at the sky.  He chuckled softly at the scene, Charlie was completely ignorant of his little girl bouncing around and chattering non-stop at the teenager.  Yes, trouble had a name.  Charlie.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

_Purple._

_I concur, though it’s more of a light lavender, though._

_The sky isn’t purple though._

_Well the Earth sky isn’t, though again I must point out that it’s more of a lavender._

_If the sky isn’t Earth’s sky, then I must be on a different planet._

_Brilliant deduction._

_We don’t have the technology to get to other planets.  There isn’t another planet in our solar system that supports life._

_Well we didn’t back where we came from._

_Et tu brute?  I thought you were the one who didn’t believe in time travel?_

_Love, I’m just going with the facts and right now a purple sky means that we’re on another planet and that means that it’s the future, and we might as well believe the pretty doctor and agree it’s 2169._

_Purple?  I thought you said it was lavender._

_Shtup ir._

Amusing inner dialogue aside, Charlie couldn’t deny it’s logic.  The purple sky, the dinosaur thing, the magical ointment that made cuts disappear, and Debbie’s testimony; she was in her future.  As insane as that statement probably made her, it was the truth.  It was rather odd that accepting that truth made Charlie feel so much better.  It was the kind of relaxing confidence that came from getting to the end of a difficult proof and writing her favorite letters in the English, well Latin if we’re being accurate, alphabet; QED. 

So when Ethan Wallis walked up to her and motioned for her to follow him, she did so with a slightly lighter spring in her step. 

“Do you have any experience with guns?”  Ethan asked Charlie after leading her away from the village and towards a small shack that the other colonists, to his annoyance, called the armory. 

The question took Charlie by surprise, but she quickly recovered.  “No.  I mean not really.  Well not real guns.  Well airsoft doesn’t really count, so no.  No I haven’t.”

Ethan glanced back at the girl and raised an eyebrow.  “I’ll just pretend that you said no.”

They reached the shack and Ethan opened the door, belatedly realizing that it was unlocked. 

“Dammit James, you had better hope you are in there or I am going to kick your ass when you get back.”  He growled.

The door swung revealing an empty room. 

“Sucks to be James, I guess.” 

Ethan snapped his head back to glare at Charlie, who took an unconscious step backwards.  He sighed and pointed to a chair.  She took it, balanced on the its edge, and cast a wary look in Ethan’s direction. 

“Ok listen up, I’m not good at giving pep talks or being a comforting shoulder.  There is really only one thing I am good at and that is keeping this colony safe.  It has … come to my attention that it might not be as safe as I would like it to be.”  He stopped and tried to carefully pick his words so as not to sound accusatory towards Charlie.  “You seem like someone who might want to learn to better defend herself.  Is that right?”

Charlie wasn’t sure what to make of this conversation.  On one hand, yes she would like to learn how to defend herself, especially if the incident with the lizard-boar was an indication of her current lack of skills.  But where was this coming from?  What did Ethan mean with ‘you look like someone’?  Charlie decided the best thing to do was agree with the man, since that was clearly what he was expecting.  So she nodded her head in the affirmative.

Ethan exhaled a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.  “Good.  I’ve talked to the ones in charge of the colony and they have agreed to let you stay here.  However, I’ve been volunteered as your … guardian, of sorts.  So, here’s how it’s going to work.”  He walked over to the other chair and sat down.  “Every day you are going to wake up at 0500, make your bed get some food and be out here by 0600, once here I will inform you of the day’s activities.  These will range from firearm practice, hand-to-hand combat training, wilderness survival, and learning to walk a patrol.”  He gave Charlie a stern look.  “The weapons are never to leave this room unless you are accompanied by me or I have given you express permission.  Do I make myself clear?”

“Are you going to put me through boot camp?”

“I asked you a question.”

“ _Oy vey ist mir_ , you are putting me through boot camp.”  She gave me a wry grin and a mock salute.  “Sir, yes, sir.”

Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose and reminded himself again that this was a traumatized girl.  He took a deep breath.  “I know that this is an odd situation, but I’m a soldier and I only know one way to teach someone.  So yes, if it helps you to imagine that this a very, very light version of boot camp … fine.  Now it’s too late to start today.  So I’ll see you here in the morning.”

“Okay.”


	4. Chapter 4

**February 2179, _The Argo_**

The lieutenant was having a terrible morning.  Chief Gunnery Officer Didius was ruining his life.  Well that might have been a little melodramatic, but only a little.  It’s true that he should have gone through proper channels before changing the cannon’s firing algorithms, but that would have taken _forever_ and he had gotten that 0.075% increase in precision.  That was enough to save lives.  It was important, damn it all.  Also his code was so damn elegant, a thing of beauty really.  He wouldn’t have been adverse to printing it out and hanging it up in his barracks.  It was that gorgeous.  So that made Didius’ revenge that much more painful.  Didius had written up the poor lieutenant and was requesting his transfer.  Didius was still going to use the code, after running many very careful tests, because efficiency was what the turian military was all about.  However they also had a very strict chain of command and even though the lieutenant technically outranked Didius, in this case he was the subordinate and going behind your superior’s back was definitely frowned upon. 

_Maybe they’ll pull me out of the military.  Dad would love that.  I wouldn’t get citizenship and probably go live in the terminus systems._

The lieutenant briefly considered this fate and he came to the immediate conclusion that it might not be such a bad thing.  Even though it would mean leaving his entire life, up till now, behind; he would finally be away from the clutches of his father.

He really wanted to punch the wall, it wouldn’t help anything and he’d probably only accomplish breaking his hand, but the fantasy remained.  Instead he stood there at attention, rigid and perfect, while silently contemplating all of the possibilities of the upcoming meeting with Captain Victus. 

“Junior Lieutenant Vakarian, come in.”

 

* * *

 

 

This time the lieutenant did punch a wall.  Transferred and a permanent blemish on his record, his new station was sure to be lots of fun too.  Vakarian was assigned to the ground vehicles.  His entire job was to maintain the ship’s Makos.  Of all the worthless and insignificant postings, the only thing more trivial would be if the captain had assigned him to the mess.  The lieutenant knew that his considerable skills were completely _wasted_ with the spirits-be-damned vehicles.  Of course, the worst part wasn’t even his posting; he was pulled off any ground team for the next _month._   **“If you can’t learn to work as a unit and follow orders, then how am I supposed to trust other soldiers’ lives to you?”**   Vakarian knew his Captain was right, he wasn’t such a bad turian that he didn’t understand.  He stared at the small dent his fist at left in the wall and considering leaving another one. 

“Just because you’re having a bad day, doesn’t mean you have to take it out on the ship.”  The voice was a soft purr and Vakarian would be a damned liar if he didn’t admit that the owner wasn’t one of the most attractive females he had seen.

“Cecilia” He didn’t want to turn his face and look at her quite yet; as he was pretty sure she had started their old game.  “Shouldn’t you be in engineering?”

Cecilia Modius smirked behind his back and leaned her body so she wasn’t touching him, but he would be able to feel her closeness.  “Oh, they let me have a short day.  I solved a particularly hairy problem within the exhaust manifolds and they told me that my solution was ingenious.  There might even be a promotion in it for me.”  She breathed into his ear.

Oh yes, they were definitely playing the old game. 

“How nice for you.”  Vakarian just barely bit back the growl that was threatening to rip itself from his throat.

“So, Garrus, how was your day?  Wrestle any new algorithms lately?”  She was starting to move her hands to hover around to his front, still taking the care to not so much as brush his uniform. 

Garrus spun around, grabbed her wrists, and shoved her back.  “I am not playing this stupid fucking game, Lia.  Not right now!”

Cecilia pouted at this new turn of events.

“You and everyone on this spirits blessed boat know how my day went.”  His voice was quickly rising to near shouting levels and he had moved to pacing the small room.  “Didius finally showed his colors as an acrocanth’s cloaca and I’m stuck scrubbing out the damn Makos probably until my damned commission is through!  The worst part, oh you’re going love this bit, the damn fool is still going to use my damn code and probably take all of the credit.  So,” He stopped in front of the female and shoved his face in hers and growled. “You tell me.  How was my day?” 

Cecilia stood between a wall and a clearly irate turian and decided that this was not a good place to be.  So she grabbed and lifted his arm, smoothly stepped underneath it, slammed her fist into the back of his sensitive waist, grabbed his shoulder and dropped the now off-balance turian to the ground.  Cecilia then skipped out of the range of his arms. 

“If you are quite done posturing and feeling sorry for yourself, you can get revenge for that little maneuver on the mat in fifteen minutes.”  She walked to the door and stopped to look at prone and growling male.

“For the record, the whole ship didn’t know about what happened to you today.  Sometimes ‘how was your day’ just means ‘how was your day’.  Not everything is about you, Garrus Vakarian.”

 

* * *

 

 

**June, 2169 - Mindoir**

 

Charlie Nacht was going to have a great day.  She knew it in her bones before she even opened her eyes.  It was 0350, she wasn’t sure when she had started thinking in military time, but she was positive that Ethan was to blame for it.  She quietly slipped of bed careful not to disturb Grace, who had taken to spending nights in Charlie’s bed.  It was a little odd that she was never there when Charlie fell asleep, but she always showed up and brought along the dog, whose name according to Grace was Doggie and to everyone else it was Trace.  Before Charlie started to get ready, she put her ID back in her wallet and stuck it on a shelf in her closet.  That ritual complete she skipped off to the shower for her favorite ritual. 

The past six months had been long and extremely exhausting, but they had also been rewarding and fantastic.  She would start everyday with calisthenics, then spend the next few hours practicing at the shooting range, which was just a high mound of dirt facing the jungle.  Charlie was incredibly proud at how well she was doing with that.  She was very good with pistols, damn good with shotguns, and extremely poor with sniper rifles.  Well that’s not fair, she wasn’t just poor with rifles she was truly abysmal.  Usually she could hit the target or, at least, get close to it.  Charlie had no idea what she was doing wrong.  It should have just been a matter of getting the angles right, math essentially and she was very good at math.  Just not this kind of math, her personal opinion was that it was too close to her least favorite subject; trigonometry. 

So maybe firearms weren’t quite for her, but she did know something that was.  She positively excelled at hand-to-hand combat.  She had skipped to the head of the class in that subject.  Charlie really wished that Ethan would start giving out letter grades for the tri-weekly sessions where about fifty of the colonists would turn out to watch the security team spar.  It was such a power trip to make someone tap out.  She didn’t win every bout, but every week she was putting out a better performance.  If there was any official ranking she would have been about halfway up the column, which was pretty good considering she only had six months of training.  That first day of training, Ethan was impressed that Charlie already knew how to fall.  Learning how to fall without hurting yourself is an important, if not the most important, basic skill.  She also already knew how to use someone’s weight against them and, of course, she knew how to get someone on the ground.  Charlie thanked all of the hard lessons she learned while playing rugby and was pleasantly surprised that she remembered most of it.  Though she didn’t know how to properly throw a punch or how to dodge or any of the fancy legwork Ethan had to show her; her previous training gave her a solid start.

With the exception of Charlie, the security team was all male; unsurprisingly they were mostly young men with cocky attitudes and too much testosterone.  A few of them had protested Charlie’s addition to the team, but she had just as much cockiness as the best of them.  It also hadn’t hurt that she had the height, reach, and fair amount of flexibility.  She would jeer and mock them when she beat them and snark and slap them on the back when they beat her.  It was really quite similar to her old rugby days, as long as she laughed at their jokes and drank their smuggled booze they were all good friends. 

The smuggled booze was actually a sore point with her.  Apparently she wasn’t allowed to drink until she was eighteen here.  She had told them she was sixteen, which was close enough to the truth, but had unfortunately also told them her birthday was March 10, which was true.  This meant that Charlie still had nine months to go before she could “legally” drink alcohol.  This didn’t really stop her though, it just meant that she had to sneak off with the rest of the teenagers; not that much different from Earth.  However, what was different was that kids she drank with were, well they were, kids.  There was one boy in particular who just could not take a hint.  Charlie had even threatened to kick his ass, but apparently that had appealed to him.  Cody Soldner was a pain in her ass.  Sure he was tall and good looking, but he just felt like a child to her.  It was actually really disturbing whenever he would try and slip his arm around her.  Charlie was used to grown up men and in her mind she was a grown up woman.  It was actually a little concerning that the only men she would even consider being with were, at least ten years older than the body she currently possessed.  Not that it really mattered though; she was not looking for a man to replace Justin.

All of that aside though; today was going to be a great day.  She had finished her shower and was rechecking her already packed backpack.  Today Ethan was taking her out in the Hoover.  The Hoover was the name of the only shuttle the colonists had.  It was beaten up and generally filthy, but to Charlie it was beautiful.  Charlie first saw the Hoover during her second week on Mindoir.  It was small, with only room enough for a pilot and two, maybe three, additional people.  Ian Rodriguez was the sole engineer on Mindoir, so when he found Charlie poking around inside of it reverently stroking the control panel, he immediately demanded that Ethan let him borrow her a few nights a week as an assistant.  Charlie was not a natural engineer, but she did throw herself whole-heartedly at the job.  She was always trying to coax Ian into telling her more about technology, in general.  But he could be surprisingly tight-lipped about some things.  She had found out that faster-than-light travel existed, which wasn’t exactly surprising at all, but that it wasn’t warp field technology.  That question had Ian laughing so hard he fell out of the shuttle.  Charlie had not been amused.

Actually there was a lot that she felt people weren’t telling her.  She had to ask the questions in a round a bout way to start with, because she was supposed to know most of this stuff already.  Apparently there had been some war somewhere, everyone only referred to it as “the war” which was unsurprisingly not very helpful, with some aggressors that were pretty much the equivalent of space Nazis.  Charlie didn’t really care much anyways; war apparently hadn’t changed at all in 157 years.  There were the good guys and the bad guys; and who was who only depended on what side you were on.  As best as she could gather, these colonists came to Mindoir after getting fed up that their government decided to make friends with the aggressors.  Charlie thought that was a little petty, though she would never say it; after all they were all human and wars end.

However these conversations were too few and far between for Charlie’s taste.  Most of the adults on Mindoir did not seem to trust her.  The security team did, but they were only 20 people out of the couple hundred residents.  Well the kids also liked her.  After Charlie convinced Trent Newman to steal, er “borrow”, his father’s guitar; they decided that they liked her even more.  She was not a natural musician, she couldn’t write a song to save her life and her voice was a little too deep to pull off beautiful.  However, Justin had been an excellent musician and had taught her well for the four years they were together.  So she introduced the Mindoir youth to punk and her favorite rock from her childhood.  Mostly it was Weezer, POTUSOA, Cake, and a little Green Day; however there were also some oldies thrown in there.  Charlie wasn’t so disillusioned that she thought she was revitalizing rock, but the kids seemed to like it and they brought her more sheet music that they found buried in old archives.  If it wasn’t for the really strange guitar, it was guitar-shaped but it had a built in amplifier and could be played as a bass, electric guitar, or acoustically, Charlie would have felt like she was back like she was back on Earth. 

At 0400, Charlie walked out in the living room to find Ethan, when she couldn’t find him she decided that he must have left already, so she hustled out to the armory.  She could see the light on inside the shack and walked in to find Ethan checking his rifle. 

“Sorry I’m late.  I must have just missed you.”  She offered him a smile and got a grunt as a response.

“Do you need me to grab anything while we’re in here.”

“Take this.”  Ethan handed her a pistol and her favorite shotgun.  Then he started to deposit a large amount of ammo into a sack.

“What’s going on?  I thought you said this was just going to be a scouting mission and we probably weren’t even getting out of the Hoover.”

“Mission parameters have changed.”

“The hell does that mean?”

Ethan turned and looked at Charlie for the first time that day.  “Your boy’s gone missing.”

Charlie scrunched up her face and shook her head.  “My boy?  … Cody?  What did that _schlemiel_ do this time?”

“We’re not sure, but he’s definitely gone.”  Ethan gave Charlie a sympathetic look.  “Jess is gone too.”

“Well they probably went off, like a couple idiots, to drink and fuck in the jungle.” 

“Yeah that’s what I’m thinking too.  They say anything to you?”

Charlie shook her head.

“Alright well, it’s you and me then.  We’re going to follow them and hopefully drag them back with no complications.”  Ethan stepped past Charlie who had finished attaching the pistol to her left leg and had her shotgun attached to her right.  She already had her combat knife in a sheath strapped to the small of her back.  Ethan looked down with a disapproving glare at the shotgun.

“Look I know you don’t like it there, but it’s perfect for quick draw purposes.  And I would like to point out that shotguns aren’t precision weapons, so the only time I’m going to need it is for quick draw purposes.” 

“Fine, but I want this to recon to end without us taking a single shot.  Remember that.  If we see something big and mean out there, we go around it.”

“You got it, boss.”  Charlie gave what she thought was a dazzling smile, but was actually closer to evil grin and she grabbed her machete off the wall.

The trek in the jungle was fairly routine by now.  Ethan had started taking Charlie out on his patrol, her second month on Mindoir.  They would walk out somewhere between a half a mile and a whole mile, Ethan changed it each time to keep from forming a trail, and circle the colony.  Ethan taught Charlie how to watch for dangerous animals and make sure none of them claimed any territory too near to the colony.  Most of the indigenous life on Mindoir preferred to be close to water and the colony was positioned on the high piece of land and was five miles from the closest water source, so most of the species they had to worry about were insects, snakes, and small lizards.  However, occasionally something large would make its home nearby.  There was the toornak, the boar thing Charlie had met the first day, the occasional rause, which looked like a 7 foot tall, scaled, and featherless ostrich.  They would have been fine, if they weren’t so aggressively territorial.  The worst Charlie had witnessed were the raptors, oh they weren’t called raptors, but after Charlie started calling them that the name stuck.  She really hated them.  They looked almost exactly the damn raptors from Jurassic Park, which was extremely unnerving the first time she saw them.  The main difference was that the tallest of them were only 5 feet tall and they are scavengers.  They were vicious though and hunted in packs of five to six members.  The trick was to focus on one of them, mortally wound it, the rest of them would usually turn on their brethren, and it was easy to pick them off one at a time after that.   God forbid it if they ever got intelligent. 

The trail Cody and Jess left was easy enough to follow, as they picked their way the dense foliage.  Ethan held up a closed fist and Charlie immediately stopped and waited for him to motion her closer.

“What do you see?”

Charlie crouched down to the floor and studied it for a minute before answering.  “Two tracks, one male and one female.  They appear to be heading north-north-east.”

“Good.  Where do you think their destination is?”

“ _Oy gevalt_ , they’re heading for the Stevens.”  She spoke in a harsh whisper after a moment.

“I agree.  This could turn ugly.”

Ethan really didn’t need to add the last sentence.  The Stevens was an off-shoot of a massive river and was given that name after Roger Stevens was killed there during the first year of the colony.  Since then the Stevens had been officially off limits and thus Charlie had never been there.  They picked up the pace as they continued to follow the trail. 

After about 20 minutes, Charlie stopped Ethan.  “I think they were followed.”  Ethan followed where Charlotte was pointing. 

Ethan grunted an affirmative. “Raptors.”

Charlie would have been more pleased at her discovery, if it hadn’t meant that there were raptors to deal with. 

“Raptors won’t go near the water though, they’re not that dumb.”

With that comment Ethan set off again, this time running as fast as it was safe to travel in the dense jungle.  When Charlie could hear the running water, Ethan slowed down and gave her the sign for ‘weapons out’ and ‘caution’.  Drawing and unfolding her shotgun she followed Ethan’s lead.  Charlotte sighed with relief when she realized that the raptor tracks had veered off to the east and had apparently abandoned their quarry.  Then she realized that they did that, because she and Ethan were heading towards something bigger and scarier. 

Charlie could tell that there was a clearing up ahead, but couldn’t quite see it through the brush.  There were a quite a few tracks to be seen here and something large and low to the ground had recently moved through the brush, as a swath of plants were pushed down in a trail.  There were also some disconcerting scratches on the trees that told the tale of something very tall.  Ethan’s hand signals told her to stay low and continue following the trail, he was going to go off to the east and get a better view.  Ethan’s back silently receded to the right of her and she was struck as being extremely jealous of his ability to move so quietly.  Charlie hadn’t quite mastered that talent yet. 

When she neared the tree line she found Jess.  Jess was lazily swinging in a hammock tied up between the trees with a few empty glass bottles littering the ground under it.  The girl was, of course, fast asleep, as it was only about 0600.  Charlie holstered her shotgun, stepped to the hammock, and placed one hand over Jess’s mouth and raised the other hand’s finger to her own lips.  Jess woke up with a start and began to panic until she saw Charlie. 

“Where’s Cody?”  Charlie whispered close to Jess’ face.

Jess shrugged.  Charlie let the girl go, but firmly motioned for her to stay put and be quiet.  Thankfully the girl complied and Charlie scanned the beach for Cody.  The term beach was rather generous for what Charlie was looking at, riverbank would have been more appropriate.  The Stevens was rather wide, Charlie could see the other side, but she wasn’t positive how far it was away a 100 feet maybe, quite possibly more.  The water was rather slow moving and there was a bit of debris floating in it.  There was also one long log floating alongside the bank.  Charlie still couldn’t see Cody so she crept a little further out, but still inside the brush.  She gave the shoreline another sweeping glance and noticed that the log wasn’t moving.  It was in the same position and apparently defying the current.  It didn’t take her too long to realize that the “log” was definitely alive.  She didn’t know what it was, but it had to be, at least 15 feet long, based on what little of it was breaking the surface. 

_I couldn’t have left the gators back in Florida?_

Charlie was still focused on the creature that was keeping close the shore, when she heard a yell and Cody came crashing out of the jungle a little ways down the shore from the east.  A few seconds later he was followed by four raptors.  Two shots rang out and one the animals fell, but instead of turning on their brother the creatures were focused on the screaming prey.  Cody was leading them right to her.  When they got in range, Charlie pulled her pistol and aimed for the one closest to Cody.  The first shot hit the raptors tail, the second went wide, but the last two hit the beast’s head and throat.  

Two more shots rang out and they were down to one raptor.  The last one seemed to realize that Charlie was the real threat and leapt at her.  She went down with the ball of hate and teeth clinging to her chest.  It lunged at her throat and she raised her left arm to intercept its mouth.  Her canvas jacket was absolutely useless against the teeth.  As it sunk into her flesh, she felt the teeth connect with the bone.  Charlie screamed, but not with fear as she did the first day on Mindoir.  She screamed with fury, at the reptile who had the audacity to try and eat her.  Her right hand reached for her shotgun on her leg, while she brought her left leg up to her chest.  With a guttural yell kicked the creature up, raised her shotgun to its chest and pulled the trigger. 

The raptor was quite dead as she removed her arm from its mouth and stood back up.  Cody had stopped running and was now slowly walking backwards away from the trees, as if he was afraid of another attack.  Jess was mercifully silent in the hammock, though her eyes were silently screaming.  The adrenaline was starting subside as Charlie was suddenly well aware of exactly how much pain the bite had left her in.  Her left arm was covered in blood; most of it was hers, though the blood covering the rest of her clothes was not. 

A sudden movement and a scream snapped her attention back to the shore.  The “log” creature had made its move and had Cody latched in its massive jaws.  The creature was definitely not a gator, though its tactics appeared to be similar.  The head was triangular, like a salamander, and was filled hundreds of razor-sharp teeth.  The rest of its body was layered with close fitting dark grey plates.

Without much thought for her own life, Charlie tore off towards the creature.  She dimly heard the two rifle shots, but her ears were filled with the gurgling screams tearing out of Cody’s throat.  Charlie thought she may have heard Ethan shout something from behind her, but she disregarded that thought.  She had to save Cody.  She wasn’t going to watch him die.  They were going to go home, she was going to call him a damn fool, and as penance he was going to corroborate her heroic rescue story.  Cody wasn’t supposed to die, that’s not how his story ends. 

Charlie reached the creature and realized that she didn’t know where to shoot.  So she jumped on its snout, put the shotgun flush with one of its eyes and pulled the trigger.  Her only thought as she pulled was something akin to, “This is either really stupid or really smart.”

It turned out be a little of both.  The creature was definitely dead, so that was good, but the angle she was laying on its face meant that when it fell it threw her to the ground and landed Charlie squarely on her already injured arm.  With a very anguished moan she pulled herself up and staggered to the creature. Ethan was running at her.  Charlie was trying to get its mouth open, when Ethan got there and stopped her. 

“Charlie.  Stop.”  He grabbed her hands.

“What do you mean stop?  I saved him.  We have to … get him out of there.”

“I’ll get him out, but you need to go sit down.  Keep an eye on Jess, okay?”  Ethan was talking so low it was hard for Charlie to hear him over Cody’s gurgling screams.

“I can help you!  He’s going to die if we don’t stop arguing.”  Why was Ethan being such an idiot?  If they didn’t pull Cody out _right now_ and start applying some medi-gel it was all over.

“ **I gave you an order soldier.** ”  The command in Ethan’s voice had Charlie staggering back to the hammock before she realized what she was doing. 

Charlie picked up her pistol out of the mud where it had fallen during her earlier fight with the raptor and slid it back into her holster.  Cody’s screams had changed now and she could have sworn that she could hear her own name echoing in the cries.  The sound sent chills down her spine and almost made her turn back, but Ethan’s orders kept her marching back to Jess.  Jess was visibly shaking and crying softly.  Charlie sat down heavily next to her in the hammock.

“How is he?”

Charlie gave a small shrug, “I don’t know, but if we can still hear him screaming then, at least, we know he’s still alive.”  Cody’s screams were definitely getting louder and now she was sure she could make out her own name in between sickening gurgles. 

“Charlie, I don’t hear any screaming.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

Ian and the Hoover came to pick them up shortly.  When Ethan came over to collect the two girls, Jess was trying to put pressure on Charlie’s arm that was still pumping blood and Charlie was just sitting there both unaware of Jess’s efforts and her own violent shaking.  She was still lost to the screams.  Ethan tried to rouse the girl, but soon gave up and threw her over his shoulder and carried her to the shuttle.  On the way back to the colony Charlie lost consciousness.

When she woke up she was in the hospital bed back at the Wallis’ house.  She thought her arm should hurt more, but it was just a dull ache.  When she looked at the previously ruined left arm it was wrapped with gauze and there were three thick black circles connected with wires wrapped around the bandage. 

“Good you’re awake.”  Dr. Wallis noticed the device that had captured the attention of her patient.  “That’s a bone knitter.  I’m not sure you’ve ever seen one of those in action before.  It’ll need to stay on another hour, at the least.  So try not to move around.”

Charlie slowly nodded her head.

After an unknown amount of time, Charlie asked.  “How long was I asleep?”

“Most of the day, there was a nicked artery and you lost a fair amount of blood.”

After a moment, Charlie whispered.  “Is Cody alone?”

The doctor wasn’t sure how to respond to this question.  “Charlie, Cody’s dead.”

Charlie nodded her head.  “But is he alone?”

“Yes, we’re making preparations for a burial, but it probably won’t be until tomorrow.”

“Will you let me know when I can leave and can I have any candles?”

After Dr. Wallis removed the bone knitter and Charlie got redressed, she was led to the chilled supply closet in the back of the house.  Debbie found some candles though she had no idea why Charlie wanted them.  They were scented candles and had conflicting odors; Charlie pondered if this would be offensive to the dead, but realized that it didn’t actually matter.  As she arranged the candles around a spot on the floor, it dawned on Debbie what the girl was about to do. 

“Honey, you can’t stay here.”

“A body must never be left alone it’s disrespectful to person who once lived there.”  She whispered as she lit the candles.

Debbie was at a loss.  She didn’t know anything about Jewish customs, but, like everything with Charlie, if the girl said or did anything odd it was a fair bet to blame her religion.  However, this was too far.  What was the girl going to all night?  What were the candles for?

The last question was answered by Charlie turning off the light and sitting down on the floor. 

“I really don’t understand.”

“I’m going to be his _shomerim_.  It’s like I’m his guard until he’s laid to rest.  I can’t really explain it.  It is tradition and I really shouldn’t be talking right now.”

Debbie was truly at a loss, but she could tell that this was important to Charlie.  So she left her alone.  When Ethan came home that evening, she informed him of Charlie’s silent watch over Cody.  He also didn’t understand, but like his wife he understood that everyone’s mourning period was different.  Ethan tried to bring Charlie some dinner, a blanket, and a coat.  She politely declined the meal, stating that it mocked the dead, but took the rest. 

Charlie spent the long night in the room.  She didn’t hear his screams, but she knew they weren’t gone forever.  She would hear them again when she closed her eyes.  That thought kept Charlie wide awake.  She was grateful too that the black plastic sheet hid Cody’s body.  Charlie did not want to see what the monster had done to him.  She spent the night in silence, but in her head she mutely replayed the scene on the beach over and over counting every mistake she had made that morning.  Every mistake was one, she promised Cody, that she would never make again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Schlemiel means idiot.
> 
> Oy gevalt is like a stronger way of saying "oy vey". It's not as light hearted and is used to express fear.
> 
> A shomerim is essentially exactly what Charlie described. Usually there are multiple shomerim and they take turns watching the body. You are not supposed to do anything while keeping guard. That means no talking, no eating, no electricity, and what ever else. The idea is that doing something that the dead person cannot do is insulting.
> 
> Also sad things aside, holy crap Garrus! Yeah I love Garrus. Don't worry he comes back and he isn't always going to be a Mr. Grouchypants. Also I may have stolen the term acrocanth from another piece of fan fiction, but for the life of me I can't remember which one. So please don't get mad at me and if anyone knows where it came from, let me know. 
> 
> I am not going to ask for a review or comment ... and me mentioning the fact that I'm not asking for a review or a comment is not a silent plea for one. However if you want to, you know ...


	5. Chapter 5

The funeral came and passed rather uneventfully.  Charlie had buried people before.  She had been to her mother’s funeral as a young child and her bubbe had passed on a few years ago, but none of them felt as empty as Cody’s did.  Maybe it was the lack of Rabbi Applebaum or maybe it was that he was replaced by the loud preacher Rev. Stilton who was going on and on about sin and redemption.  It felt so out of place and insulting.  It’s not like she had been Cody’s biggest fan, but his main flaw was that he liked her too much and he deserved more respect than this.  This music was nice though, kind of unusual compared to Jewish funerals, but it was still nice.  Even though it would have been grossly inappropriate, her hands ached for prayer book to offer Cody peace.  It was the comfort of tradition that kept Charlie going in this future.  That even though everything may have changed, she still had the traditions of her people to keep her sane.

Sometime after the service Charlie asked Deborah for some lessons in basic first aid.  The days seemed to move more quickly now.  Like the universe was rushing them towards some event and couldn’t be bothered to wait for the hands of the clock to finish their silent march.  Charlie took on more and more responsibilities.  She had firearms practice, which she was getting much better at, though her rifle training was still subpar.  Jungle patrols with Ethan were still regular and he let her take the lead more often than not.  Charlie was still excelling in hand-to-hand combat and eventually worked her way to just under Ethan in the imaginary rankings.  One day she actually pinned him and he tapped out, but she was pretty sure that he could have broken her hold if he really wanted to.  First aid training was slow going, but eventually she learned the basics of simple injuries.  Unsurprisingly most of the instructions included pour massive amounts of medi-gel on the wound and pray.  

Ian had pretty much run out of things to teach Charlotte about the Hoover, without her earning a engineering degree first.  So instead he started teaching her things like how to break security systems, encrypting methods, decrypting methods, and other odd bits.  She loved it.  Charlie loved it more than sparring.  This was a task she could really sink her teeth into.  To say that Ian was impressed with her knack for writing complex algorithms would be putting it mildly; if he didn’t know better he would have sworn that Charlie had a degree in mathematics.  Charlie was happy to have something that she didn’t start out woefully ignorant about.  There might be quite a few more branches of math then when she started studying, but the theorems she knew stayed the same.  The method might change, but logic was eternal.

Thus her days passed each one came bearing new challenges to lie at her feet and she welcomed them all.  Charlie’s nights stayed the same, as well.  Each night started with her clutching her ID, closing her eyes, and waiting for Cody’s scream to lull her to sleep.  Each morning she was greeted by a smiling face full of brown curls and bright eyes.

 

 

* * *

 

 

**January 2170, _The Argo_**

 

Lieutenant Garrus Vakarian was not in a good mood.  Now just because, dear reader, you have only seen him in bad moods, does not mean that he doesn’t have a good day.  The past few months Garrus had been in a wonderful mood.  The best of moods, in fact; the kind of elation that can only come from getting regularly laid.  Cecilia Modius was a little minx between the sheets.  Garrus and Cecilia had known each other since boot camp and had played the game for such a long time that Garrus had been starting to wonder if it was only a game to Cecilia.  Cecilia had happily proven him wrong.  It wasn’t just the sex, though that definitely helped, it was Cecilia.  She was a worse turian than even Garrus.  Everything was a joke or a game to her; there wasn’t an ounce of stoicism beneath her plates.  To Vakarian there was nothing more attractive.  His father would hate her.  Not just because of her mentality, though that probably wouldn’t help, it was her lack of colony markings.  Cecilia Modius was a bare-faced turian.  Garrus didn’t care about that though.  If anything it made her more appealing, because it meant she was a blank canvas for his own Vakarian blue.  It wasn’t like he gave a salarian’s cloaca, about moving up in social rankings.  So he found himself stalking the corridor heading towards his station, with Cecilia Modius’ bite marks still tender under his armor.  Not even his reminder of the last night’s encounter with his beautiful turian female could help his mood though. 

This time the cause of his ire was not directed at the Gunnery Officer, it was directed at Captain Victus.  It might help if I explained the situation.  Last week there had been a batarian attack on the asari cruise liner, _Malindra_.  The Malindra was on its maiden voyage and had been on the long trip to Ilium when the attack came.  The asari government was furious, to say the least, and no one had any answers as to what could provoke the batarians to attack such a prominent target.  Ilium was a trade hub and brought the batarian government not inconsiderable profits.  However, Garrus was more concerned with the “how” the batarians had managed to take over a ship of a thousand asari, not the “why”.  Asari are well known for their biotic prowess and no one in their right mind would attack such a target, let alone board the ship and take prisoners. 

However, that is exactly what the batarians did.  The _Argo_ received the distress signal, while on their patrol through the Attican Traverse, and was among the first to arrive at the Malindra.  Garrus would never forget the carnage they found within.  Most of the bodies were the few non-asari that had been on board.  The boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, and wives; the picture that was painted was grim.  The bodies were left where they fell and the halls were painted in blue, red, purple, and green.  The weapons that were used against the batarians were mostly make-shift arms.  A piece of pipe, a decorative sword, or a broken chair leg; there were very few actual firearms to be seen.  It wasn’t surprising that the guests weren’t allowed guns, what was surprising was that the armory was untouched.  Garrus’ squad had reached the security station and found only a couple of bodies there, a human and a turian.  It was obvious that they were attempting to hack the door control when they were killed.  Garrus had to move the human female away from the door before they could open it and he saw that her hand was still on her omni-tool that was running a very basic hacking protocol.  The woman had almost made it, the thought brought bile to his throat.  The armory, itself, was pristine.  Clearly no one had been in there.  The stacks of firearms seemed to mock the dead passengers. 

As the teams steadily made their way through the ship there was a growing trend and that was the lack of asari.  They only counted 24 dead asari, which was staggering compared to the 245 other dead species on board.  Somehow the batarians must have incapacitated the asari before taking the ship.  That was both worrisome and strange.  As far as anyone knew, there was not a drug available that solely targeted the asari, without causing death, and ignored the other levo-amino species.  In the end, the ship left them with more questions than answers and the hierarchy informed the Argo that its new mission was to hunt down the batarian ships responsible for the massacre.

However, this was still not the reason Lieutenant Garrus Vakarian marched into the cargo hold and kicked the Mako’s tread.  You see, after they were given the new mission, Garrus and the rest of the crew were ready and eager to send the batarian bastards back to whatever spirits hollow world they crawled up from; but that’s not exactly what happened.  It appeared that after the successful attack on the Malindra, the batarians had scattered and were now attacking every far-flung colony that bordered the Terminus Systems.  The Argo always seemed to be one step behind them.  The one time that they had gotten close enough to catch up with one of the ships; it had made a jump through an Alliance controlled relay.  Now the Argo was waiting for permission to follow it through.  That is why Garrus Vakarian was in a bad mood.  They had them in their sights; all they needed to do was go after them, but the stupid bureaucracy was preventing them.  At best they were stopping the Argo from seeking vengeance for all of the lives already lost, at worst they were keeping them from saving innocent lives; and that was far too much for Garrus to take.  So he had made a trip up to see the Captain and told him as much.  Even though Victus agreed with Garrus, he couldn’t admit it to the lieutenant and instead ordered him back to his station.

“All hands brace for relay jump, in 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1.”

As Garrus steadied himself against the Mako he let a cold grin spread across his face and hoped he would get to lead a ground team.

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie could feel the sweat starting to trickle into her eyes, she really wanted to rub them, but her hands were currently very occupied. 

_Slip the pin in.  Reattach the barrel.  And slip the slide back on … shit shit where’s the slide._

She fumbled around the table, wasting precious seconds searching for the slide.

_Got it … and it’s attached … reload and_

“Time!”

She raised the corner of the blindfold and peeked at Ethan, who was slowing shaking his head and looking at his watch.

“That bad, huh?  Well I mean I guess I can’t be good at everything.”

Ethan laughed at her, “Actually it wasn’t bad, you definitely still need practice.  I mean I can’t believe you lost the slide, but it’s a fully functioning gun so that’s an improvement.”

“Laugh it up, big guy.  A student is only as good as their teacher and”, she gave Ethan an unimpressed once over, “this is all I have to work with.”

“I know you well enough to avoid that bait.”

“Oh come on, Ethan.  You know that I crave our banter.”  Charlie gave him a half smile.  “Well fine.  Was the time good enough for that story you’ve been promising me?  I seem to recall that we had a deal.”

Ethan gave her an exasperated sigh, “Fine.  Tonight.”

Charlie pulled the half-smile into a full blown grin.  A few months ago, after weeks of nagging, Ethan had told her that he would give her the colony’s back story when she could field strip her handgun blindfolded.  Of course, he was mostly joking about it and had been concerned when Charlie offered him a hand and called it a deal.  Ethan was a man of his word though and a deal was a deal.

“So what do you have this afternoon?”

“Actually I’m free.  I thought I might steal, er I mean borrow, Ian’s tablet and work on some hack--, I mean programs.  Just normal programs … that do … things.”

“Programming things, I take it?”

“Well obviously.”  She flashed him the most innocent smile she had in her arsenal, however it fell decidedly short of its mark.

“Uh huh”, Only Ethan’s eyes betrayed his amusement.  “Well as fun and wholesome as that sounds, why don’t you take the rest of the day off?  Everyone else is.  Go out, eat too much food, and bribe James into letting you get drunk on his outpost.” 

Charlie rested her hand on her chest and opened her mouth with feigned shock, “Ethan Wallis what kind of a girl do you think I am?  Cavorting with drunkards, really, I am a lady.”

He shook his head at her, reached over and pulled the ‘lady’s’ blindfold the rest of the way off her face.  “Alright, alright I’ll pretend I don’t know anything, as usual.  However you should really take some time off.” 

“Is that an order?”

“If I ordered you to do it, I doubt you actually would.”  Ethan left a giggling Charlie in the room.

Charlie really was going to go have fun the rest of the day, but she thought she might as well take Ian’s tablet just in case she got bored.  That tablet was Charlie’s favorite toy, I mean tool.  It had loads of programs and fantastic software available for her to write her own.  Also it could wirelessly connect to pretty much any system, provided she could hack it.  It was Charlie’s favorite proof of the future; if only they had the internet it would have been golden.  The most delightful part of the future was how easy software writing had become.  Well easy was the wrong word, but it was more elegant, readable, and intuitive; then she remembered. 

Charlie had just settled down in her favorite spot nestled in the back of the Hoover and was fixing some typos in her current program, when she heard the sirens.  She folded the tablet up and slipped it her pocket before running back to the armory.  She had only heard the alarms twice before.  The first time, there had been a fire in the corn field.  Thankfully they had gotten that under control before too much damage had been done.  The second time was during the slaughtering the pigs, Charlie had decided that trying to keep kosher was insane on a planet that’s main source of protein was pork; anyways the smell of blood had encouraged a small group of raptors to brazenly attack the barn.  They had fended of the attack without much bloodshed.  Both of those times, though Charlie had known what was going on before the sirens even started.  This time she was caught flat-footed.

Charlie was almost out of the rows of houses when she saw the ships.  They reminded her of the Hoover, except they were each about three times the size of the old shuttle and there were four of them.  Where the Hoover reminded her of a hovering brick, these had rounded edges and they were bright red.  There were some markings on them, as well, but she didn’t have time to study them.  Charlie was glad that they were landing behind her instead of coming between her and the armory. 

A hand roughly grabbed her arm before she could start running again. 

“Charlie you need to get Grace and leave.”  Ethan was shouting over the noise of the vehicles.

“No, I can stay here and help.”  She waved an arm in the direction of the ships.  “Who are they?”

“Batarian slavers.  You are going to get Grace and stay in the jungle.  Trust me.”  His eyes held Charlie’s and she could feel the fear edging his voice underneath the commanding tone. 

“What about Debbie?”

“Everyone knows their job.  This is yours.  I know you know what the batarians are capable of and I won’t have Grace find out.”

“What do you mean I know?  I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’ll do it.”

Ethan gave Charlie a confused look and looked like he was going to ask something, but he turned the look into relief when she agreed to his request.

“Keep your head down, move quickly, and check your corners.” 

Charlie nodded her head, changed directions, and bolted for the house; by the time she got to the door she heard the first gunshots.

“Grace!  **Grace!** ”  Charlie bolted for her room first to grab her always ready backpack.  By the time she had it secure, Grace and Debbie had found her. 

“You coming too?”  Charlie asked the woman, who was dressed in a similar fashion to herself.  Charlie was wearing her usual black shirt, cargo pants, boots, and canvas jacket.

“Of course.”

“Good,” Charlie gave her a tightlipped smile.  “We gotta move.  We’re going to make a stop at the armory on our way.  I don’t think they knew where it was, because they set down on the opposite side of the colony.”

Debbie just nodded her head and let Charlie take the lead.  It was a strange sensation to actually be in charge and Charlie realized that she hated it.  Ethan or Ian or, hell, even Debbie was supposed to be in charge.  Charlie didn’t have the luxury of time to ponder what batarians were, but she sure knew what slavers were; and if Debbie or Grace captured or, God forbid, killed the blame rested solely on her shoulders. 

By the time they were out the door the gunshots painfully close. 

_Sounds like a full-auto.  Assault rifle?_

_Probably, be glad it’s not something with more accuracy._

Charlie followed Ethan’s careful instructions on their way between the houses.  Debbie was holding Grace, who was being uncharacteristically silent.  They stayed low and tight against the houses, when they would reach a corner Charlie would carefully lean out and check for hostiles, before signaling for them to run to the next cover.  Her hands itched for a gun, but they were all locked up in the armory.  The sounds of gunfire and screams were painfully loud and once she could hear both of those noises coming from inside the house they were pressed against.  There was nothing she could do though so they avoided the windows and kept moving. 

The last corner, before the dash across the small field to the barracks was the first obstacle they came to.  Charlie could see the shadow of a man standing just to the left of the corner, she could also hear a woman crying, the unmistakable sounds of fists meeting flesh, and she could hear the laughter.  It was a deep bass laughter and Charlie wasn’t sure she had ever heard a voice quite that low.  Charlie’s blood boiled to rip the throat out of whomever’s voice that chuckle belonged to.  However, Ethan’s lessons forced her to stay calm and keep her head.  She glanced back at Debbie who was shaking, but staying silent.  After signaling the woman to stay back, Charlie lowered herself to the ground and belly crawled to the corner to appraise the situation. 

There was definitely a man standing at the corner, but his back was to her as he leaned against the wall and watched the other one.  The other man was beating a woman who was lying on the ground.  It was that bastard with the rumbling laughter that churned her stomach.  He was treating the woman like she was a toy; a kick to the ribs while she down, then a jerk of her hair to force her to stand, and then slap to the face to force her back down again.  Biting her tongue to prevent the stream of expletives that was threatening to slip her lips, Charlie carefully reversed her way back to Debbie.

_Alright we need a plan._

_Right what do we have?_

_We have a combat knife.  The problem is that they are wearing full armor._

_Where did Ethan say that armor is weakest?_

_Armpits, back of the knees, back of the elbows, and the throat._

_Ok, so you slit the first one’s throat.  He’s about your height and you’ll have the jump on him.  What about the other one?_

_I don’t know.  I don’t have a gun and I can’t risk him killing the girl._

_You don’t have a gun, but the first guy does._

_Good point._

With a tentative plan in hand, she reached Debbie and silently informed her of the situation.  She motioned for her to stay down, then raised herself up to a crouch.  There is a huge difference between knowing that you have to kill someone and then actually doing it.  There are no save files in real life; and movies and games cannot prepare you for the sensation of adrenaline flooding your system, your palms sweating with apprehension making the blade’s handle stick to your flesh, and your mind constantly pouring over all of the possible flaws in whatever fool plan you have dreamt up.  So much could go wrong.  The first man could hear her approach, maybe the armor would be thicker around the neck than she thought, or maybe there was a third man in the house watching everything.  So there was a slight pause as Charlie hid behind the house with her blade drawn.  The girl’s scream and wretched pleading spurred her into moving; she recognized the voice, it was Jess. 

Charlie smoothly stood up behind the first slaver and in one fluid motion she sliced deep into his throat.  Her earlier fears of the armor being too thick meant that she sliced too deep and her knife was now wedged in his spine, so she let it stay there as he dropped.  However the thick gurgling noise attracted the attention of the second slaver.  As Charlie fumbled at the catch for the assault rifle, she heard a pistol being fired behind her.  Debbie was firing at the slaver.  Her stance was horrible and Charlie didn’t have the time to wonder where the woman had gotten a gun from. 

The second slaver seemed to think it was funny, as Debbie’s shots either went wide or were absorbed by his shields.  He casually reached down, drew his gun, and shot Jess.  Charlie knew she was out of time with trying to get the rifle clear of the body, when the laughing bastard started firing at them.  She grabbed Debbie’s hands that clenched the gun, pointed the weapon at the slaver, and sent the remaining three rounds into his chest.  It was an awkward position as the doctor was screaming and Charlie was being rather rough with her, but she didn’t really have any other options.  The batarian’s shields flickered and he had to duck behind the back stairs to wait for them to charge.  Charlie whirled Debbie around and threw the woman behind the house near Grace with an angry grunt.  The fool woman almost got them killed.  If Debbie had given Charlie the gun to start with, she could have handled this situation and maybe Jess would still be alive. 

Charlie was livid and not thinking clearly which was why she decided to make the next foolish decision.  She ripped the rifle off of the dead batarian, unfolded it, and bolted for the stairs.  When she neared the stairs she jumped up on them, pointed the barrel at the slaver on the other side and unloaded the entire clip.  It was overkill and she knew it, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.  The batarian was now a barely recognizable pile of orange flesh. 

For a brief moment, Charlie indulged in the euphoria of simply being alive.  She had faced down two fully-grown, armored, women-beating slavers and she had beaten them.  Insane giggles were threatening to escape her throat, when she remembered that the cost was Jess’ life.  That sobering thought brought her completely out of her reverie and she searched the bodies for spare ammo.  At least they would not need to go to the armory.  With clips filling her pockets, a bloody pistol awkwardly fitted in her belt, and her knife back in its sheath; she made her way back to Debbie and Grace.  Charlie was going to give that woman a piece of her mind after they got to safety.

She found Debbie lying on the ground where she left her.  Debbie Wallis’ chest was a blossom of red.  Grace was patting her mother’s face trying to wake her up.  Charlie wasted no time in sinking to her knees and groping the woman’s neck to find a pulse she knew wouldn’t exist. 

“No, no, no.”  Charlie’s panicked whisper broke Grace’s silence and the girl started crying. 

Charlie looked at the little six-year-old who had her mother’s blood on her hands and listened as sirens continued to ring and the sounds of gunfire slowly faded.  She scooped the child up, settled Grace on her left hip and ran for the tree line. 

Charlie didn’t stop running until the sounds faded away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was a day late, I went wedding dress shopping with my little sister. Apparently she needed me to be there as I'm the maid of honor. So I spent the day mocking her goy husband and her choice of a Catholic wedding. Much fun was had.


	6. Chapter 6

When Charlie finally stopped running she tried to set Grace down, however the girl was rather opposed to the plan.  So she awkwardly slid off her backpack, working around the clinging child, and repositioned Grace to her back.  She then pulled her machete out of the satchel and set to clearing a section of the jungle for a camp.  Her backpack was filled with everything a single person would need for 3 or 4 days in the wilderness: A single person tent, a couple of tarps, a blanket, plenty of water and ration bars, and a small first aid kit.  Charlie really did not want to set up camp, she wanted to sit by herself and let her mind dwell on the horrific events of the past 2 hours.  However the crying girl took precedence and she had promised Ethan she would take care of her. 

After a very long thirty minutes of wrestling with the tent with a child threatening to strangle her on her back, she eventually got Grace to sit down and drink some water.  Charlie then emptied her pockets of the scavenged supplies and positioned herself at the front of the tent, with the assault rifle resting on her knees. 

“I finished my water”, Grace spoke from behind her.  “Can I get back in your lap?”

“Sure.”  Charlie set the gun aside, but within arm’s reach.  If she was being honest with herself, she was grateful for the girl’s presence.  It was comforting and grounding to be needed by someone else.  Grace crawled into Charlie’s lap and wrapped arms around her waist. 

“Can you tell me a story?”  Grace asked after a while.

Charlie looked down at the six year old, she just barely managed to wrestle back the tears that were trying to form.  Grace had started demanding to be told stories after Charlie had made the mistake of telling her the first one.  She had been throwing an epic temper tantrum out of angry exhaustion and Debbie had the look of a mother pushed too far.  So Charlie had forced the girl to sit next to her in bed and told her the tale of “The Princess Bride”.  Since then Charlie had recounted, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (which Grace was positive was about Charlotte), “The Lord of The Rings” (heavily abridged), “The Lion King”, and every other fairytale, movie, or book she could recall.  This time, however, she decided to tell a different story.

“Well, once upon a time, there were a people called the Hebrews.  A long time ago, they had a wonderful land that was all theirs, but at the start of this story they were living in a strange land.  The people who lived there had made them their servants.  So they had to spend all of their days working in the fields and building monuments for their masters.”

“Is this a good story?  I want a happy story.”

“Well like most stories something bad has to happen first, before the good things can happen.  I don’t usually give away the endings, but I promise that this one has a happy one.”  She leaned down to kiss the girl’s forehead and continued the tale.

 

* * *

 

 

Once Grace had drifted off to sleep, Charlie was able to consider the day.  She could feel the nagging tug at the back of mind and the old whispering voice had come back.  Charlie’s hands were still covered in the orange blood and as she sat there studying them the voice got louder.

_Orange blood, well that isn’t right._

_True very true.  Would it possibly be called inhuman?_

_I don’t like what you’re getting at._

_Okay well consider this, what did Ethan call the slavers?_

_Batarians?_

_Riiiiight.  I think we’ve heard that word before._

_Well that doesn’t mean anything.  It was a stupid game.  He could have just as easily called them andorians and you’d be telling me that I was in a Star Trek episode._

_True, but what color blood did batarians have?_

_I don’t remember.  Also if aliens existed, why did no one mention this to me?  I mean that feels like it would have been kind of a big deal._

_Yes, you do remember and you’re just being stubborn.  I don’t know why they wouldn’t mention aliens, but don’t you think they probably thought you already knew?_

_Listen I have watched, read, and played a lot of science fiction.  Now we’re in the future, I mean some of it had to turn out real enough.  I’ll admit that this is scarily accurate and maybe if I had seen four eyes I might, might mind you, believe you.  But this could just be a giant coincidence._

_I’ll give you that one, but let’s not forget everything else.  We’re on a planet in a place called the Attican Traverse, you have to remember that one.  All those times in the war room looking at that damn map._

_Shit.  I’m still not convinced though.  What else do you have?_

_Medi-gel._

_Nope I’m not giving you that one.  It stands for Medical Gel.  That’s generic enough that it quite possibly came about naturally._

_How about the fancy folding guns?_

_Again that could just be a coincidence, like medi-gel._

_Well who is the manufacturer of the guns?_

_I don’t know, Ethan kept his painted matte black._

_True, but the batarians didn’t._

Charlie looked that the assault rifle lying beside her on the ground.  Her stupid inner voice was right, she could just make out the logo.  Charlie really didn’t want to reach out and check, mostly because she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.  If this was just a game, then that would cheapen everything she had been through.  Cody, Jess, and Debbie were dead; could even her sick and twisted imagination make something like this up?  Her eyes sought Grace’s sleeping face and stroked the girl’s hair.  No, there are too many details.  Charlie could clearly recall the past year living with these people.  The late night drinking games, the hours of sparring, every blow she had taken, the first time she glued a wound closed, the raptor’s teeth shredding her arm, and a million other details.  They were real memories and experiences, that can’t be dreamt up.  Whatever clue that gun held, no matter what, it didn’t matter; this right here was real. 

Charlie reached down, lifted the gun up, and studied the logo.  She couldn’t read the language, but didn’t think she recognized the symbol.  It appeared to be a stylized white sword.

_Well that wasn’t informative._

The handgun yielded more information.  Charlie did not recognize the symbol, but she could read the language.  “Kassa Fabrications”  She almost dropped the gun on Grace and instead placed it on the ground with the logo facing down. 

_Holy Shit._

 

* * *

 

 

The trip through the mass relay didn’t take much time, as usual.  After they arrived in the system a quick scan showed that a ship had recently jumped to FTL.  That left the Argo to guess at which of the other two systems the ship had travelled to within the cluster.  They chose the wrong system and lost a full day travelling through the cluster.  This delay was taxing on the entire crew, but none more so than Garrus Vakarian.   Though no one had asked his opinion, he had done his own research and also came to the conclusion that the batarians had headed for the Hemon System.  After all there were two fairly large colonies one of the planets.  He did not know why they travelled to the Ithaca System.  There was only a single colony located there and an unmanned orbiting research platform.  The Alliance had not given the Argo detailed information on the colony and seemed reluctant even to mention it.  Garrus didn’t know why, but a couple hundred people was not a profitable target for a massive batarian cruiser.  It just didn’t make sense. 

“Maybe it’s a secret research base?”  He asked the interior of the Mako. 

Whatever the batarians’ reasons, they were only four hours away from the colony on Mindoir.  Garrus’ omni-tool pinged with an incoming message.

_V,_

_We’ve got 3 hours till the briefing, are you going to spend that whole time locked in the Mako pouting?_

_-M_

Garrus chuckled despite her taunt, he had been ignoring Cecilia for the past couple of days.  He was also off-duty until the upcoming mission, maybe he should make it up to her.  He was about to send the message when something occurred him.  He reached up, unlocked the hatch, and pushed it open.

“You know it’s not nice to sneak up on people when they’re working.”

A female face appeared in the opening to look at him, before spreading her mandibles wide in a grin.  “I’ve been up here for ten minutes; you really need to pay attention to your surroundings.  I thought snipers were supposed to be good at situational awareness.”

“I guess I’ll have to add shady females to my list of creatures to study the movements of.  Now unless you’re planning to join me down here, you need to back up so I can get out.”

Cecilia landed lightly in front of him.

“Who says I’m not going to join you in here?  Maybe I’ll give you some tips concerning the movements of shady females.” 

Garrus tried to maintain the disapproving glare, but a twitch of his mandible belied his effort.  “As tempted, as I’m sure you are Lia,” His breath caught when Cecilia ran a talon across his waist with an evil look in her eyes. “I mean what female wouldn’t want all of this.”  Garrus gave a weak chuckle, in an attempt to regain his confidence.  He then stepped around her and pulled himself out of the vehicle, he offered her an arm to help her out. 

“You are no fun,” she said with a pout, before accepting the arm and pulling herself out of the Mako.

“Oh I don’t know about that.  There are plenty of places I can be fun in, just not ones that will get me a second reprimand.”

“Sparring first or are we heading straight for the barracks?”

Garrus grabbed Cecilia’s waist, pulled her close, and growled in her ear.  “Sparring.  My dear, I never skip the foreplay.”

 

* * *

 

It was dark.

Very, very dark.

Grace was still asleep, but Charlie had managed to get her into the tent.  The jungle was as silent as it was dark and that was not a good omen.  Charlie was not sure if maybe it was the horrific events of the day or perhaps it was the year of training with Ethan, but something was making her very cautious.  She had already cleaned both weapons, secured the pistol to her side, and was loosely holding the assault rifle in her arms; crouched on the jungle floor ready to defend against whatever dared to attack them.  She was jumpy, to put it mildly.  Of course there was another reason for her anxiety.  It kept her attention away from the very real possibility that she was living in a computer game. 

Charlie snapped her head towards the south; she thought she had heard the first rustle of leaves her ears had noticed for over an hour.  The sound was getting closer now and it was definitely coming towards them.  She swiveled her whole body towards the direction and let her senses tell her what was going to emerge from the brush.  The noise was close to the ground, so its size was small to medium, and she could feel any vibrations, so it was light as well.  When she realized that there were multiple sources of the noise, she cursed silently.  There was a herd of raptors coming towards her and she was alone.  No, not alone.  It was worse than that.  She had Grace to look after. 

The first one broke through the brush and she unloaded four three-round bursts into its body as it skidded to the ground in front of her.  Two more had burst through, as well but they were running past her without any concern for the fate of their brother.  That was when Charlie heard it.  A deep screeching roar that chilled her skin and made her hands falter on the rifle.  Charlie did not know what creature it belonged to, but she was suddenly very aware of the tremors coming from the ground.  Something a lot bigger than a raptor was crashing through the jungle.  Something furry and monkey shaped clawed in the back of her mind and finally spurred the woman in motion.

Charlie reached into the tent to grab a drowsy Grace, who had been rudely woken up by the gunfire.  Scrambling through the underbrush she ran as fast as the terrain would permit her back towards the colony. 

_follow the raptors not us/follow the raptors not us/follow the raptors not us/follow the raptors not us_

The massive creature did not hear Charlie’s silent chant, as it changed direction and followed her.  She knew that she could not beat it in a fair footrace, especially not with Grace wrapped around her front; so she decided to make her path as difficult to follow as she could.  Charlie slipped between every narrow opening in the trees and avoided every clearing on her way back.  It took more time that way, especially with the jungle being dark; but it caused the creature to fall back.

Thanking God that the creature was not an intelligent one; Charlie reached the edge of the jungle, ran across the very large vegetable garden, and towards the silent colony.  She finally came to a stop around the corner of one of the identical houses; she vaguely remembered it belonging to James Frisco.  Charlie was out of breath and panting as she leaned against the side of the house and kept a cautious eye on the tree line. 

“Grace, I need you to help me out here,” she said as she set the girl down.  “I need you to watch that tree line.  If you see anything come out of there or you hear anything I want you to tell me.  No, don’t worry I’m not leaving you alone.”  Charlie added as Grace’s face filled with panic.  “I just need a big girl to help me out while I make sure no one is here.”  Grace nodded her head solemnly and turned to watch the trees.  The batarians had not cut the power so the lights were still on and lit up the surrounding jungle. 

Charlie kept the girl in sight as she crept towards the end of the house to peer at the street.  When she was about to reach the corner, she heard a noise.  It sounded like an animal; it was a deep bass rumbling noise, interspersed with chirps and whistling.  She had never heard such an impossible mix of harmonics, but it was on the other side of the house and she hoped it had not noticed her.  Drawing a deep breath Charlie sharply turned the corner with her rifle raised and the safety off. 

Charlie’s eyes widen at the 7 foot tall creature in black and silver armor.  Her head barely came up to his mid chest.  She didn’t have time to gawk as the hulking man growled at her. 

“Stop or I’ll shoot,” she tried to put the commanding tone that Ethan used so well in her voice and was thus surprised when came out like a squeak. 

The man, or whatever he was, was clearly unimpressed as he quickly reached as impossibly long arm out to move her rifle, while reaching for his own gun on his back.  Charlie didn’t really have time to assess this new threat, she didn’t know who he was and what he was doing here, but she was damn sure she wasn’t going to let him kill her or Grace.  So, she stepped forward and threw all of her weight into punching his exposed armpit, she was vaguely aware that she shattered her right hand doing so.  He was clearly surprised at her action as he stumbled, dropped her rifle, and grunted.  Still moving she stepped behind him, kicked the back of his left knee, and forced him into a kneeling position.  Simultaneously she pulled out her knife, gripped the back of his sloping helmet, and pressed the blade to his throat.

He was trying to grapple her with his free arms, so she set one foot on his leg spur, and put some weight on it.  “I already slit one alien bastard’s throat today, try me.”  She spoke in a low tone and for a wonder he actually stopped moving.  Apparently she did menacing a lot better than commanding, or maybe it was just that she really meant those words. 

“Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Charlie wasn’t sure if the chirrups and humming were his response or not, but either way she had no idea what it meant. 

She was about to try and question him again when she heard more of the alien speech coming from in front of her.  She counted six more of the armored aliens and they were all leveling weapons at Charlie.  The first thing that struck her about the aliens, was that they were clearly turians.  The second was that they were of varying heights and builds, Charlie seemed to remember that they all seemed to look alike in the game, but then again this was real life.  It was most certainly not a game. 

“I don’t want to hurt him, but I need to know who you are.”

There was another chorus of almost musical humming.

“I can’t understand you, but you’re still pointing weapons at me.  If you understand me, lower them.”  She was spacing the words out, as if that would help convey their meaning.

A few of them lowered their weapons and it was enough to let her know that they could understand her words.  However, two of them took a menacing step forward. 

Charlie straightened herself and repositioned the knife, tilting her captive’s head further back.  “Don’t think I won’t do it.”

Her prisoner sent a few harsh hums and chirrups and the turians stepped backwards once more and lowered their weapons. 

“Good.  Now I will let him go only if I’m certain I will not be harmed.  I don’t know how you are going to prove that, but …” 

She trailed off when an seventh man joined the group and stepped to the front.  He was taller than most of them and his armor was slightly different. 

“No … harm.”  His voice was cracking and the words were difficult to make out, but she thought she could understand him.  He placed a hand on his chest.  “Military … aid.”

Charlie could feel the tension melting out of her body.  She wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth, but dammit she wanted to believe him.  She was just starting to let the captive go when Grace came running around the corner screaming, “HereHerehere!”

Charlie dropped the knife and let go of the turian in an instant.  She scrambled past him to grab the child, who had stopped moving at the sight of the many aliens.  When she had lifted the girl she saw what had sent the girl screaming.  It was the creature that had been chasing them earlier and Charlie had been correct, it was massive.  It stood on two legs about 20 feet off the ground and was, at least, double that in length.  It’s head was vaguely shaped like a crocodile and it had two long powerful arms tipped with claws.  A good portion of its body was covered in heavy dark green plating, especially on its back where the plating arched to protect its spine.  Oh, and it was charging straight at the two girls. 

Charlie let out an unintelligible cry and blindly turned to her right to run.  However, the previously captive turian was still in the process of standing up and she ran straight into him and all three of them went tumbling to the ground in a heap.  In the confusion of the fall, Charlie right ankle got tangled up with the turian’s and caused her leg to pull sideways, when she landed on that knee the pain caused darkness to threaten her vision.

 Grace’s hands clenching her face and her piercing scream in her ear, brought Charlie’s mind into focus again.  When she came around the turian was gone and the terrifying beast was standing over her and Grace.  The group of turians on the other side of the beast had opened fire and were drawing its attention away from the prone girls.  Charlie tried to stand up, but the damage to her leg made that impossible and she fell back down to the ground. 

Strong hands were trying to take Grace away from her and she struggled with them, but the darkness was attempting to take her again and her strength was failing.  Grace was pulled away from her and Charlie let out a pitiful sob.  Then a hand and an arm came back, wrapped under her arms and across her back, and lifted her to a standing position.  The beast was still roaring in fury as they hobbled around a house to take cover.  The turian lowered her down as gently as he could and gave a very willingly Grace back to her.  Resting against the building, Charlie looked down at her leg.  It was definitely broken.  The lower portion of her right leg was almost perpendicular to her body and the knee was a swollen mess of blood.  Just the sight of it, almost made Charlie vomit and she probably would have if Grace wasn’t in her arms. 

The turian who had saved her was firing at the creature and was using the biggest sniper rifle Charlie had ever seen.  The familiar double tap reminded her so much of Ethan that it calmed her.  It was such an odd time to feel calm.  The monster was raging in painful fury somewhere behind her, sounds of gunfire, and the pain from her leg threatening to overtake her; but just the confident retort of a sniper rifle and the soft clicks of ammo change boosted Charlie’s spirit.

“Are they going to take us away like the bad men and the Egyptians?”  Charlie almost didn’t hear Grace’s quiet query through the cacophony surrounding them. 

“No, I don’t think they will.  They’re good people.  Like the Kenites.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kenites were the tribe of people that helped Moses after he killed the Egyptian guard. Which is a reference to the story that Charlie was telling Grace.
> 
> I had a really hard time editing this chapter. Eventually it made me so mad that I'm just posting it anyways.


	7. Chapter 7

Garrus Vakarian was having one of the oddest days of his short military career.  When they finally made it to the Ithaca system the batarians were gone.  Garrus was of the opinion that they should leave immediately to continue the chase, but instead the order was to search the human colony for survivors.  The lieutenant thought this was a pointless exercise as the batarians rarely left survivors.  As it turned out, Captain Victus had made the right call.

The first twenty minutes they spent on the surface of Mindoir were decidedly uneventful.  However, that changed when the Garrus found himself held at gunpoint by the tallest human female he had ever seen, he honestly didn’t know they came that size.  He made the mistake of underestimating her and let himself get caught completely off guard; which he definitely shouldn’t have since she was holding a batarian assault rifle and there was really only one way you get one of those in your possession.  Her voice and appearance had also caused him to label her as non-threatening.  She was wearing filthy torn clothes and her tone was a frightened squeak.  So when she attacked him he was stunned, he froze up and she had him at her mercy so quickly that it was frankly embarrassing.  He had never spent much time around humans, but Garrus could hear the truth in her voice when she told him that she had killed already and would do so again.  She obviously had never fought a turian before, because the position of the knife was wrong.  He was contemplating his counter attack and would have subdued her, but he underestimated her again and now she was threatening to break his spur.  She was obviously scared of them, but not the wild sort of fear that caused one to make rash decisions.  The honest kind, she was trying to talk to them and reason with them.  Garrus found himself listening to her words and thought he trusted them, so he ordered his men back.  He was contemplating wringing the neck of whatever idiot decided that a human translation program wasn’t part of the required omni-tool data package, when Captain Victus calmed her down. 

Garrus definitely understood the woman with the short black curly fringe, or what was it the humans called it?  Anyways, he understood her fear when the small human came shrieking out to them.  He would have probably killed everyone there, if someone had threatened his child.  He shivered, thinking about his sister Solanna.  True she was much older than this girl, but the thought of harm coming to her itched under his plates.  The momentary pain of where she dug into his spur was forgiven, when Garrus saw the frantic love in which she clung to the child. 

Of course that was when his day became truly odd.  The confident woman who had moved like liquid fire and gotten the upper hand on him, _Garrus Vakarian_ sparring champion, in hand-to-hand combat, no less;  had barreled into him so poorly and with such lack of grace that she cracked his spur.  Though when he saw the 6 foot long head full of teeth and hate, come around the corner; he quickly and painfully pulled himself out from under her and the screaming child.  He ran for cover behind a house and when he looked back he saw the woman crumple to the ground.  It was foolish to run back for her, with the massive angry beast swinging its tail dangerously low to the ground.  He knew that one bad hit with that tail could end him, but Garrus could not and would not let that frightened child and the brave woman with the large dangerous eyes die.  So he ran back for them dodging the swinging tail as he tried to stay behind the creature.  Garrus felt bile rising in the back of his throat when he saw the ruined leg and briefly wondered how she was staying conscious.  The child fought him as he staggered under the woman’s weight and his own fractured talon. 

Garrus’ favorite thing in the universe was firing his Armax Arsenal Punisher.  He wasn’t just good, he was well on his way to being damned good.  After he deposited the females in cover, Garrus went down on one knee and lifted his sniper rifle’s scope to his eye and went about bringing the creature down.  The problem with the monster was that it was armored, Garrus had never seen such a heavily armored creature before and, coming from a turian who grew up on Palaven, that means quite a bit.  The rest of the squad was slowly wearing it down, but there were two causalities he that he could see.  He couldn’t tell the extent of their injuries, but he thanked the spirits that Cecilia had not been assigned to the ground squad.  It took about a minute, which can feel like forever in a fight, but eventually Garrus was able to make an impressive head shot in between the plates.

Feeling quite victorious as he removed the stifling helmet, he almost missed the small tug on his arm.

“Mister, can you help?”

Garrus looked down into the pleading eyes of the tiny human child.  She was trembling and let out a small squeak at the sight of his face.  Clearly, he thought, she’s never seen a turian before.  He glanced over at the mother.  She was pale, sweating, and shivering; he knew that this was shock, but he didn’t know what to do.  Garrus quickly called in his location and requested a medic, as he rushed over to the woman. 

_With turians you’re supposed lie them down and elevate the legs.  Spirits, look at her leg though._  

The medic had yet to arrive so he gently shifted her from the sitting position and moved her to the grass.  Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at him.  Garrus didn’t think it was fear, but it was definitely surprise and maybe a little panic.  _Surely a grown woman has seen a turian?_   The child was kneeling on the ground hugging her mother’s arm.  Garrus found himself making soothing noises and stroking the girl’s back. 

The medic who arrived, Garrus couldn’t remember his name, was definitely not his favorite male in the galaxy.  He quickly took charge of the situation and was handling the woman much too roughly for Garrus’ tastes.  When the cloaca realized that the pair couldn’t understand him, he set to making extremely xenophobic remarks regarding their heritage.  However, Garrus did not completely snap until the man yanked the girl’s arm away from her mother with malice. 

“Get your hands off of her.”  Garrus’ subvocals ached with rage.

“I can’t do my job with this clinging pyjak in the way!”  The medic snapped right back.

Garrus hated the male’s tone and choice of language, but he really hated that he was right.  Garrus crouched down and held a hand out to the little girl.  For a wonder, the little girl took it and then scrambled up in his arms.  When the medic declared the mother stable, Garrus found himself holding the clinging child as he followed him back to the shuttle.

“Can you find someone else to hold the girl?  We could use down here, Vakarian.”  Captain Victus asked as Garrus passed him. 

“Uh sure.  I mean yes, sir.  Of course.”

However, the little girl, Grace Talitha Wallis she had informed him, absolutely refused to go with anyone else and clung tightly to his neck when he tried to put her down.

“Nononononononono.  I’m staying right here with Growlie.”

Eventually Victus acquiesced, though he had chuckled loudly at the name Grace had bestowed on him.

“Well Lieutenant Growlie, I guess you better head up to the Argo.”

As Garrus turned to leave, trying desperately not to earn his new name by growling at his commanding officer, Captain Victus added, “By the way, good job out here.”

So maybe it was an odd day, but Garrus was sure that it had also been a good day.

 

* * *

 

 

**_“Are you kidding, I’m right behind you.”_ **

**_“Scratch one!”_ **

**_“Definitely”_ **

**_“No Shepard without Vakarian.”_ **

_Vakarian_

“Vakarian,” Charlie croaked the name out loud.  Her right leg felt like it was on fire and for some reason her right hand was also in pain.  Actually her whole body was sore and full of aches.  She wasn’t sure where she was or what she was laying on, but it sure as hell was not a bed.  Charlie wasn’t sure she wanted to open her eyes, as she could feel the bright lights stinging through her eyelids.  She felt movement to her left and then there were cold, small fingers clutching her arm. 

A cautious peek through a crack in her eyelids, revealed a grinning Grace sitting by the extremely hard bed. 

“Hey you.”  She rasped as she moved her left hand to tousle the girl’s hair. 

There was a gentle admonishing rumble and a chirp that was followed by a monotone voice saying, “Do not grab her too roughly, small child.  This woman is still injured.” 

Frowning at the strange voice, Charlie looked past Grace and found the owner.  Grace was perched on the lap of a very large turian wearing even larger armor.  He was at once familiar and foreign to Charlie.  His face followed the classic lines that he had possessed in the game, but there was more movement and life in this face.  His skin tone was silver-grey, but there were little bits shimmer mixed in the plates not unlike polished granite.  It wasn’t like he was glowing, but when his head turned and caught the light the slight reflection made his plates look vaguely opalescent.  His eyes though were different or maybe it was just that these eyes were real; and no graphics engine can give those ice-blue orbs emotion.  There was one identifying mark that was exactly the same and it was the only reason that Charlie knew that this was, in fact Garrus Vakarian.  The thick sweeping blue line that came up one side of his face, crossed his nose, and finished in an identical sweep down the other side. 

“I apologize if Grace disturbed your rest.”

Charlie’s eyes, which were already fairly wide open, defied biology and opened wider.

_Garrus Vakarian, I’m talking to Garrus Vakarian._

_\--_

_Well aren’t you going to give me bit of wisdom wrapped up in snark?_

_I’ve got nothing._

“I am pleased with your recovery.”  Garrus scowled at the orange blur on his arm.

_Holy shit, it’s an omni-tool._

“I feel I must apologize for the inadequacy of this translation program.  This was the only program available and it is not conveying my meaning well.”

“It’s alright.  I’m just glad I don’t have to hold a knife to your throat to talk anymore.”  Her weak chuckle, brought her to a coughing fit.  Though she was rewarded with a flare of his mandibles, which she really hoped was a smile even though it looked terrifying.

“Yes, that was a most unfortunate incident.  Do you require water?”

A nod of the head reminded her of the migraine, but also brought her water; so it was a decent trade.  Her throat felt much better now that it was moist.   

“Your injuries were quite severe; however the physician was able to correct the damage.  You will regain full mobility in the leg,” he gave her a cautious look, “though it may prove wise to refrain from punching turians, if you wish to avoid another broken hand and wrist.”

Charlie gave him another chuckle, which in turn caused him to flash her another terrifying smile.

“I can’t believe I got the jump on a turian soldier, you must not be a very good one.”

Garrus’ mandibles slacked and his mouth hung open.  Charlie froze and silently cursed her stupid impulsive mouth.  The conversation was just so easy and felt so natural to her; that her stupid mind let her slip into the old rhythm of banter.

  _Dammit Charlie, you don’t know this person.  He’s not your friend._

Garrus quickly recovered though, “I was not expecting an impressive attack from such a soft specimen of a human female.”

They both chuckled then and Charlie once more relaxed.

“I am Lieutenant Garrus --”

“Vakarian,” Charlie and the monotone voice spoke at the same time.

Garrus’ plates bunched together and his eyes narrowed.  Charlie froze for a second time and stuttered, “I, uh, must have … heard someone say it.”

His plates marginally relaxed.  “So, umm, I hope Grace didn’t give you any trouble?”

Garrus flared a slight smile, “No, in fact, she was quite well behaved.”

“I like Mr. Growlie.  He’s nice.”  Grace piped up once she heard her name.  Then seeing as Charlie was clearly doing well enough to talk, she crawled in bed with her. 

Garrus stood up and moved toward the door.  “I should return to my station.”

“Wait, I never said thank you.”

“You also never apologized.”

“I’m not saying I’m sorry for taking you hostage, _you_ were in _my_ colony.  However, I am saying thank you for coming back and getting Grace and I away from that … thing and also for making sure I got here.”  She motioned vaguely the room.

“It was my pleasure.”

And then he was gone.

 

* * *

 

 

Soon after Garrus left, a doctor walked in and checked on her.  Apparently, she had shattered her knee cap and broken her tibia.  The doctor was frankly surprised that Charlie’s story corroborated Garrus’ own account.  Apparently the physician was under the impression that there had to be more to the tale than “falling on it the wrong way”.  She informed him that she was just naturally gifted at accruing painful injuries; unfortunately he did not find her amusing.  When he was finished poking and prodding, he asked if he could get her anything.  Charlie only wanted one thing.

“Could I have some paper and a pen?”  At the doctors confused face she added, “I want to be able to write some things down, but I also want to be able to take it with me when I leave here.”

He bobbed his head in a bird-like fashion and handed her a bendable piece of opaque plastic.  After Charlie gave him a blank stare, he showed her how to activate the screen and how bring up an English keypad.  Charlie grinned at the unassuming marvel of technology. 

“I can keep this?”  She asked the doctor with a wild look of hunger in her eyes.

“Yes, of course.  It is just a writing pad.  We have quite a few of them.”  As he left, he quietly mumbled a few words that weren’t picked up by the translator, though Charlie was pretty sure that she heard “humans” before he was gone.

Charlie really wanted to dive into her project, but she realized that she had been neglecting Grace.  The poor girl had had a terrifying 24 hours and had lost both of her parents.

“Grace?  How are you?”

“I’m ok.  Mr. Growlie gave me some food, but it was gross.”

Charlie sighed.  She had no idea what she should say to her.  Should she ask about her parents or would that make her feel worse?  Charlie was many things, but psychologist was not one of them.

“What else happened while I was asleep?” 

“Well a scary man wanted to take me away from Mr. Growlie, but he wouldn’t let me go.  I was happy about that, because everyone else here seems really mean.  Then he took me on a shuttle like the Hoover, but it was really big.  You were there too and your lips were blue.  I told everyone there that they weren’t ‘sposed to be that color.  I don’t know if they understood me, but Mr. Growlie sang me a pretty song.  It sounded like a bird’s song, but there was humming too!  It was nice and he is nice.  Then they took you away and I couldn’t see you anymore.  I was really scared, but Mr. Growlie showed me his glowing arm and then he could talk to me.  It was really cool to understand him, but I don’t like that weird voice.  It doesn’t sound like him at all.  That’s when he got me some food and then we came here and you woke up.”  Grace’s tone was her usual mix of chipper excitement, but her body language didn’t support that at all.  The girl had pressed herself tightly against Charlie’s left and Grace’s grip on her arm was turning painful.

Still unsure what to say that could comfort the child, Charlie opted for a kiss on the top of her head. 

“Char,” Grace whispered after a moment.  “What’s going to happen to us now?”

“I don’t know.”  Charlie answered honestly.  “However, I promise that whatever happens you and I are going to stay together.”

“Good.  Char, they aren’t going to make us go back there, are they?”

Charlie could feel the girl silently weeping and could feel the tears forming in her own eyes.  “No, I’m not going back there.  We’ll go somewhere else and we’ll get a new home.”

The two stayed like that for a while, clutching each other.  Charlie wasn’t sure how she was going to keep her promise to Grace.  She had no claims on the girl; they weren’t related and as far as everyone in this universe knew Charlie was only 17.  Her eighteenth birthday celebration had been planned by the Mindoir colonists.  It was supposed to be in a month, maybe she could lie to the officials and claim to be 18 already.  Of course that train of thought brought even more fears.  It was one thing to exist as a ghost in a small colony, but it was quite another to do the same back on Earth or wherever they were taking her.  Someone was going to demand the truth and the truth was the one thing Charlie didn’t have.  Whatever happened though she was going to keep that promise to Grace; Charlie just didn’t know how.

Eventually there was a chime at the door and that brought Charlie and Grace out of their shared grief. 

“Um, come in?”

The door opened to reveal a very tall turian with bold white markings streaked across his face; he was taller than Garrus, though he doesn’t seem as wide.  Of course, Charlie realized, that’s because this man was not in armor and was wearing a uniform. 

“Please pardon the interruption, I was informed that you were well enough to admit visitors.  I am Captain Adrien Victus.”  His translator informed Charlie.

Charlie tried to sit up further in the bed, but was hindered by her right leg which was suspended from the ceiling in a sling. 

“I need to discuss the specifics of the attack on Mindoir with you.”

“Right, of course.  Um, does Grace need to be here for this?”  Charlie gave a pointed look at the girl.

“No, of course not.  Lieutenant Modius has offered to look after her while we talk.”

A woman walked through the opening after he finished speaking.  Charlie had never seen a turian female in the game, so she was shocked by how delicate the woman looked.  Her plates were a warm chocolate brown, but still retained the opalescent quality Garrus’ had.  She had bright green eyes and had somehow arranged her face to appear pleasant without showing her teeth.  However, it was when she spoke that Charlie was truly impressed with the lieutenant.

“I’m afraid I do not have any ice cream, but I was able to find some food that isn’t those wretched rations.”  Modius was speaking to Grace and held a hand out to her with her palm facing up, to hide the inch long talons.  Also she spoke English.  Her accent was decidedly British, but it was accentuated with hums and trills.  Charlie thought it was beautiful, like she was singing the words and had a chorus of backup singers. 

Grace took the woman’s hand, but looked back at Charlie with questioning eyes.

“It’s alright, Grace, you should go with …“ Charlie let the question hang for a moment after a glance at the lieutenant. 

“Cecilia, but you can call me Lia if you want to.”

“See, she seems nice.  Why don’t you go with, Lia, and when you come back you should bring me some of that food.”  She gave the girl a wink and what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

Grace complied, but not before giving Charlie one last hug.  After the pair had left the room and the door was once again shut, she turned her attention back to Victus.

“Where would you like me to start?”

“At the beginning of the attack on the colony.”

“Very well.”

Charlie relayed the events as best she could remember them, since she didn’t have a timepiece with her during the attack the story was not as precise as she would have liked.  She didn’t leave anything out though.  Charlie told him about the two batarians she had killed and Deborah and Jess’ deaths.  It felt very cold to be speaking of the deaths of the two women, Charlie was speaking in very clinical terms.  She had to keep reminding herself that Victus did not need to know of the emotional trauma those deaths had brought her.  He just needed facts.  She also told him about the attack of the creature in the jungle and their escape back to the colony; when she got to the part about attacking Garrus though Victus stopped her.

“I know about what came after the attack, however I have a question.  Have you met a turian before?”

“No, not in person.  I’ve seen pictures though.”  That, Charlie thought, was actually quite true.

“Why did you attack him?”  Victus’ voice did not sound angry, though it was almost impossible to tell, and his monotone translator did not help.

“Well, until yesterday I had not met an alien before, and the first ones I do see are killing my friends.  They killed Grace’s parents and everyone else I know are either dead or slaves.  To be honest, sir, I didn’t know who he was.  As I informed Lieutenant Vakarian, I won’t apologize for disarming him.  Maybe if I was alone and didn’t have Grace to worry about I would have had a more diplomatic solution, but I’m not sure how I was supposed to know that your men were soldiers and not well-armed mercenaries.”

Victus appeared to ponder this for a moment before asking, “Would you have killed him?”

“If he had given me a reason to, yes; in hindsight, that would have been a mistake.  But I would have killed all of your men, and more than likely died trying, to protect Grace.”  Charlie was sure that this was the wrong answer, but Victus’ quiet stare seemed to pull the truth from her.  She didn’t break eye contact though, even though every inner voice she had was screaming at her.

Victus only smiled.  “Well I am not sure I would have liked our odds against you.  I have to say I am impressed with your tenacity.  I never thought I would see a human female take on an armored turian with nothing more than a combat knife.  While I may not agree with the manner in which you handled the situation, I do understand the reason why.  Protection of your nest is a strong instinct and I am not surprised to see it is shared with another species.”

Charlie felt buoyed by the unexpected praise.  She had been a little afraid of some form of retribution.  To have a reprimand replaced with pride, felt like a giant weight had been lifted off her chest. 

“Why is it that you do not have a universal translator chip?”

Charlie had never heard of such a device.  She supposed that it made sense, especially since the other turians could understand her even though they clearly did not speak her language.

“I have never had the opportunity to acquire one.”  The statement was not a question, but her voice lifted at the end of it.

“That is strange, though I suppose it is not unheard of.  I have not had a reason to practice my English since the unfortunate Relay 314 Incident.” 

Charlie nodded her head as if she understood that and maybe she did, but the memory was quite fully formed yet. 

_I should have read the stupid codex entries._

_Yes, you should have.  But you just had to rush through the games, didn’t you?_

“Captain Victus, what are you going to do with us?”  Charlie asked breaking through her inner thoughts.

“Well that depends on you, actually.  There is a colony in the relay system that we can leave you both at.”  He stopped when he noticed Charlie’s wince.  “Or we can take you to the Citadel.  We have to make a trip out there anyways, since we have lost track of the batarians, and I can make sure you find the human consulate there.”

Charlie let out a relieved sigh at the prospect of going somewhere she knew.  “I would appreciate it, sir.  Is there any news you can give me about the slaver attack?  Why did they attack us?”

Victus huffed and let out a small growl.  “We do not know why they chose Mindoir to attack.  They wiped every console in the colony clean and the research platform is missing.”  He stopped and ran a hand across his fringe and gave Charlie a nervous look.  _He wasn’t supposed to tell me that._ “I am sorry to tell you that about half of the colonists are missing.”

Charlie was quiet for a moment, as she hoped that Ethan, Ian, and the rest of her friends weren’t being tortured as slaves.  She turned somber when she realized that would mean they were dead instead. 

“Well I will let you get some rest.  We will arrive at the Citadel in three days.”

After Captain Victus left, Charlie turned her attention back to her small datapad. 

_So what do I know about Mass Effect?_

_Quite a bit, want to start with the alien races?_

_Might as well.  Let’s see there were batarians, asari, krogan, salarians, quarians, geth, and of course the turians._

_Right.  Don’t forget the vorcha and drell.  Oh and those jellyfish things._

_Hanar?_

_Yup._

_Oh and those giant, monotone elephants?_

_Wait, what were those called?  Oy … elcor?_

_Sure why not._

Charlie wrote down everything she could remember about the various species, which was surprisingly very little.  What was actually written on the pad was more of a list of names and the various quirks that those members of the species possessed.  With that task completed she turned her attention to the actual missions from the games. 

_Do you recall any dates?_

_No._

_Shit.  Alright so it’s currently 2170, that much I know.  Maybe if I could find out what Shepard is doing right now I can try to place where I am._

_How do you know Shepard is real?_

_I don’t, but Garrus is apparently a real person and so is Primarch, uh I mean, Captain Victus.  Wait wasn’t he a General before.  For that matter, why isn’t Garrus at C-Sec?_

_Either this universe is different from the silly game or we are here before everything happens._

_Agreed.  Well let’s get everything that I can remember written down._

Unfortunately, Charlie was slowly starting to realize that she couldn’t recall everything about the Mass Effect games.  It had been over a year since she last played them and her life had taken such a strange turn of events since then.  It also didn’t help that she had only played them once and that she had kind of rushed through them.  Charlie had been planning to go back and replay them more thoroughly, but well she had touched the pillar and here she was. 

Charlie could remember certain events though.  She knew that there was a Prothean beacon and that there was an evil ex-Spectre named Saren.  She could remember that there was a giant, zombie producing plant on one of the missions.  Oh and there had been the rachni, she had killed the queen.   She had been playing a renegade the first time through.  Actually it was a good thing she had killed the queen, because in Mass Effect 3 she had spared the queen and that turned out terribly.  Then there was the ending, she knew that Shepard killed Saren and everything ended happily, but she couldn’t remember the details.  There was definitely an epic space battle involved with the ending though.  Right, she thought, Saren had a reaper ship and the Normandy had destroyed it.

_You know if the graphics had been better, maybe I wouldn’t have rushed my play through._

_Well maybe you should write BioWare and inform them how inconvenient they are making this for you?_

_Shtup ir._

The second and third games were a little clearer, but not by much.  It was frustrating how little she could remember of the individual missions.  In the end, she had a note pad full of almost random material.  For the few missions that were very clear, Charlie was missing some key information.  For instance, what planet the mission took place on.  At least she could remember the core plot. 

The sound of the door opening brought Charlie out of her thoughts and she quickly turned the pad off.

“I got oranges and bananas for you!”

Charlie suppressed a groan at the mention of the fruits.  There were not a lot of fruits that would grow on Mindoir, since there was never any frost.  The taste of oranges and bananas had definitely gotten very old for Charlie. 

Grace, however, was wearing the first real smile that Charlie had seen since before the attack.  So she acquiesced and graciously accepted the fruit.

“Oh thank you.”  Grace sat down in the chair, previously occupied by Captain Victus, and began reading a book that Charlie recognized. 

“Thank you for watching her.”  She offered Cecilia a smile.  “Were any of our other things brought up from the planet?”

“Not much, I’m sorry.  We’re going to leave most of it for the Alliance team to take care of.  I’m sure that they’ll forward your belongings.”  Cecilia gestured to the book.  “I was part of the second team and I found myself in your home.  I had seen Grace with Garrus, umm, Lieutenant Vakarian and I thought it might be nice for her to have something of her own.”

Charlie felt the corner of her mouth twitch at the other woman’s obvious fondness for Garrus.  She was adorable, Charlie thought, and also very sweet.  Perhaps she could get some information about the attack from her. 

“Captain Victus told me that the computers on Mindoir had been wiped.”  Charlie put on her best innocent blank face.  “Have you discovered why, yet?”

“Well, no not yet.”  Cecilia began slowly.  It was obvious that she was cautious about speaking to Charlie on mission details.  “The Alliance has gotten quite a few details about Mindoir wrong though.”

_Hmm… the Alliance is involved.  Well I guess that makes sense, we are human.  I wonder what details she’s talking about._

“Ugh, the Alliance.”  Charlie made a show of rolling her eyes.  “Inefficient bureaucracy at its finest, don’t tell me that they didn’t tell you that we were here?”

Cecilia seemed to relax a bit.  “Oh they told us, but they also told us that you had a geosynchronous research platform and you don’t.  The batarians wouldn’t have an interest in such a thing.”

_What?_

Charlie’s mouth echoed this sentiment, “What?”

“So you didn’t have one?”

“No, I mean not that I know of.”  Charlie was quiet for a second.  “Why did the Alliance send a turian ship to rescue us from the batarians?”

Cecilia’s drew her face plate tight.  “I’m not sure I should say anything more.”

“Please?  Were you following the batarians or what was going on?”

Cecilia opened her mouth to answer her, looked to the door, then locked eyes with Charlie and nodded her head.  “I think you should ask Captain Victus that very question.  However, I have to get back to my station.”  She placed a hand on Grace’s shoulder.  “It was lovely to meet you, Lady Grace.”

The girl giggled at Cecilia and then offered her a hug, before the turian left the room.

“You know I _always_ tell you the stories.  How about you read me one from your book?”  Charlie asked Grace.

“Okay.”  Grace cheerfully responded.  Then she launched into a story that involved unicorns making friends with dragons.  Charlie leaned back and smiled, making a show of paying attention.  However she was actually considering the questions Cecilia had left her with.  She had been so focused on the discovery that she was in the Mass Effect universe that she hadn’t given any thought to the day’s events and what they meant. 

Charlie was angry that she hadn’t mourned her friends properly or buried the dead that she had seen.  She had even stepped over Rev. Stilton without giving it much thought, like that was normal.  Nothing about the day had been normal.  Losing the two people that had given you a new life, was not normal.  Debbie was dead and she had not been able to save her.  Charlie tried to tell herself that it wasn’t her fault.  That the woman had gotten in the way all by herself, but she did not believe that.  She should have noticed that Debbie had a pistol or she should have been able to get the rifle off the fallen batarian faster.  If she had been able to do either of those things, Charlie felt like she could have saved both Jess and Debbie.  It would have been easier to just blame Debbie, but Victus had mentioned the protective instinct and Charlie knew that Debbie had done what she felt was best.  If the woman had not jumped out when she did, then Charlie would likely have been shot instead.  Then Debbie and Grace would have died, as well.  Her heart ached for Ethan and everyone else that was gone.  Especially Ethan though.  She knew he would never have been taken alive and the man would have fought till the last bit of life in him was extinguished.  Charlie knew that she could not have saved them all.  If Ethan couldn’t, how could she have the arrogance of assuming she could?

So while half listening to Grace tell the story, she thought on her friends.  James, who was constantly late to work and always had a fantastically horrid excuse.  He was a good friend though and always took time out of his day to talk to her.  James was also one of the only people in the colony who seemed to understand sarcasm.  Ian, who was always working in the damn Hoover and was always so excited to talk to her; she had had to constantly watch herself around that man.  He wanted to know so much about her, Charlie would find herself accidentally telling him more about her past than she should.  She trusted him though, Ian always smiled and had a joke.  Also he showed her some truly remarkable things that his tablet could do …

_The tablet.  I had the tablet._

“Grace?”  The girl looked up from the story with a little reproach at having been interrupted.

“I’m sorry, but where did they put my clothes?  I wanted to put my shirt on while I listened to your story.” 

“I think the doctor put them over here.  Mr. Growlie, I mean Mr. Garrus, told them that they couldn’t take your things.”  Grace reluctantly walked over to the side of the bed and opened a drawer with an exaggerated sigh.

“I was just getting to the good part.  Did you just want a shirt?”

“Well actually,” Charlie said, as if the thought had just occurred to her.  “If there is a little black box in there, could I have that too?”

Grace gave an even bigger sigh this time and threw Charlie’s shirt at her.  Charlie struggled to get the shirt on with the bandage on her hand.  Finally Grace popped up with the tablet.

“Is this it?”

“Yes, thank you Grace.”  The relief was palpable in Charlie’s voice.  “So will you tell me what the unicorn found in the cave now?” 

“Well he found Otis.”  Grace clamped a hand on her mouth.  “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that, yet.  Now I’ve ruined the story.”

Charlie could not help the laugh that slipped through her smile.  “Oh, well I don’t know who Otis is.  So I think the rest of the story is still a secret.  Why don’t you finish it for me?”

With Grace occupied once more on reading the tale aloud, Charlie opened the folded tablet.  Her program diagnostic had finished running at some point and the screen was beeping with the results.  Closing the memo, Charlie decided to search the tablet for some of Ian’s own projects.  She had done this before, but they were locked to her user profile.  There wasn’t a lot she could do from her profile, but she was going to try. 

It took her three hours.  In those three hours, Grace had finished her story and Charlie had let her crawl in bed.  She had also taken an hour long break from the project to sing Grace to sleep.  However Charlie had finally managed to open one application of Ian’s, his communications.  Charlie did not even know that he was communicating with anyone.  There were only a few computers on Mindoir and none of them were hooked up to each other.  It was almost an accident that she even stumbled across his communications folder as Charlie had reached an impasse at her pathetic attempt to hack his profile.  She could not read older communiqués, but she could read the last one.

 

To: Charon – Mindoir, Ithaca System (111554.5621.9894.1237.1)

From: Pluto (LOCATION REDACTED)

Extraction incoming.  The soul that you have acquired is not to journey with you.  The beacon enclosed will deliver you to me. 

 

_The fuck._

The message was not particularly helpful.  It did not make sense, but it was dated three days prior to the attack.  Charlie assumed that the beacon was a program, because the message took up too much space for such a short transmission.  However, someone, presumably Ian, had deleted it from the tablet.  It was confusing.  Had Ian known about the attack?  Why was he called Charon?  Is Pluto the planet, a person, or a cartoon dog?  Charlie knew that Charon was the ferryman of the mythical Hades, but she had no idea why Ian was called that or who this “soul” was.  However, it was now very late and Charlie was far too tired to handle the implications of this message.  Ian was a very good friend and she refused to believe that he would choose not to help the colony.

Charlie’s brain was mutinous as it demanded rest.  She lowered the bed to a sleeping position and closed her eyes.  While waiting for the screams to settle back in her ears and wondering what new horrors would join them this time, her eyes sprung open.  This would be the first night without her ID tucked firmly in her hand.  It was a disturbing feeling that rushed through Charlie, it felt like she had been cut off from her life.  Grace shifted in her sleep and the movement caused Charlie to wonder if perhaps it was time to let it go.   

 

* * *

 

 

“You are going to have to repeat that.”  Captain Victus did not usually growl, but the salarian scientist was getting the better of him.

“Repetition is inefficient.  Perhaps should have hearing checked.”  The salarian jumped in spite of himself when Victus growled again.  “As I have previously stated, the drug used on the Malindra was a chemical compound that retards the angiogenesis of specific tumors.  This retardation by itself is not harmful.  Can be helpful even.  The second stage of the compound then destroys the affected tumor--”

“I don’t understand what you are getting at, I’m not a scientist.”

The salarian gave an exasperated sigh at the Captain’s ignorance.  “Perhaps if you would allow me to finish ---”

“I have allowed you to finish three times now and I am no closer to understanding.  Give me a three sentence answer as to what all this babble means.”

The salarian made a show out of stopping and repeatedly counting on his fingers.  Each time he would get to three he would stop, shake his head, and repeat the process.  After five minutes of this Captain Victus was sorry that the salarian was on Sur’Kesh, though he was giving serious consideration to the idea of rerouting the ship there so he could strangle this salarian in person. 

“Chemical inhibits the ability for any biotic to function, including asari.  After an hour of exposure the afflicted person will lose ability to function and slip into coma; after 3 hours the person is dead.  There is no cure and we cannot synthesize the chemical compound.”  Each sentence was punctuated with a pause and another finger being raised.

Captain Victus sat back in his chair and stared at the gel representation of the salarian in front of him.  “What do you mean there is no cure?  Surely one exists and you just haven’t discovered it yet.”

“This will require more than three sentences.”  The salarian warned.  After a wave of the captain’s hand, he continued.  “We cannot reverse the effects of the diminished element zero nodules, however it is possible that we can stop the process.  The problem is that once the drug has severed blood flow to the nodules, the brain starts to shut down.  The older the biotic, the more dependent they are them.  This causes coma and death.  Angiogenesis drugs are common though and there are ways to prevent them from continuing to disrupt blood vessels.  Never have seen such quick acting chemical, will need to continue study.” 

“Could the batarians have developed this … drug on their own?  I’m under the impression that their medical advances are behind ours.”

“We are calling the drug Omega-Enkaphalin.  To answer your question, I am not privy to the Hegemony’s scientific advances.”

“Well contact the STG and see what they know of this Omega …. this O-E.”

The salarian scientist gave a haughty sniff.  “Was not aware I answered to the turian Hierarchy.  Suggestion prudent though.”

After the salarian scientist closed the connection, Victus continued to stare at the empty space the gel had occupied.  This was going to be bad.  This could and probably would mean war with the Hegemony and even though that trouble had been brewing on the horizon for a while now; Victus was not sure if the galaxy was ready for it.  Especially if the batarians now had a way to kill biotics, while it wouldn’t affect the turian military, it would wreak havoc on the asari and even the human forces.

Captan Victus expelled the air from his lungs and reached for the bottom drawer of his desk.  He pulled out his Manaean Brandy and a glass.  It was going to be one of those kind of nights.


	8. Chapter 8

The next three days passed quickly for Charlie and Grace. For the majority of the time they were alone and confined to the medical bay. Well they were always confined to the medical bay, but occasionally they had visitors. Captain Victus came by once a day to check on Charlotte. He asked her quite a few questions about her training and how she had received it. He was also very concerned about what she planned to do now and strongly encouraged her to join the military, though he understood her apprehension about leaving Grace alone. Cecilia Modius came by during her off hours and Charlotte found her to be a friend. Lia claimed that she was only there to practice her English, but Charlie could see that it was Grace that had stolen her heart. Garrus Vakarian only came to visit her once more, but he stayed for five hours.

  
“What are you working on?”

  
Charlie jumped and fell out of the bed. She did not hear the turian’s approach. The damaged leg was healed by now so the fall didn’t hurt her physically, but her pride was wounded.

  
“Oy gevalt, don’t you knock?”

  
Garrus lifted one mandible and offered her a hand. Wait, was he smirking at her? “I believe if I had knocked, you still would not have noticed. Are all humans so ignorant of their surroundings?”

  
“Are all turians such asses?”

  
“No, I believe that would just be me, but it is a nice specimen.” He paused and shook his head. “I apologize. I do not know how we ended up in a verbal sparring match.”

  
“Probably, because you know you’d lose a real one.” She smirked at him and Garrus raised his eyeplates at her, visibly restraining himself from retorting. Charlie raised her hands. “Alright I’ll stop. I’m sorry.”

  
He gave her a wary look. “Well if you are done. I did ask you a question. What are you working on?”

  
Charlie gave him an appraising look, before letting out a frustrated sigh. “I’m trying to get into this.” She tossed the data pad at him and he caught it.

  
“I believe the catch is right here.” Garrus unfolded the pad.

  
“Oh well I’m glad you were here to show me. Whatever would I have done without you?” Charlie gave him a mock angry glare.

  
Garrus chuckled and turned on the device. “Is it yours?”

  
“Yes”

“Then all you have to do is enter the pass code.”

Charlie turned the glare into horribly construed innocence. “What if I forgot it?”

Garrus tossed it back to her. “Well I would say you are out of luck. So who is the original owner?”

“I told you it’s mine.”

“And I am the Primarch.”

“That explains why the turians allow such a schlemiel on the ship.”

Garrus laughed in spite of himself. He had never spent much time with humans, but he could understand why so many turians found them infuriating if they were anything like this female. “What does that word mean?”

“Schlemiel? Oh, so your farkakte translator can’t keep up with Yiddish. This is good to know.”

“Is that a language?”

“No, I’m making up words to fuck with you.”

Garrus raised a hand to prevent the smile that was threatening to form. “Knowing you, I would not doubt it.”

“Alright, yes it is a language. Well it’s a mix of two languages really. Schlemiel means idiot.”

“And the other words mean?”

“You can’t expect me to give away all of my secrets so soon? Buy a girl a drink first.”

“Do I have to buy you a beverage to get you to tell me who that Tevolge 9 data pad belongs to?”

Charlie opened her mouth for a retort than realize that her face gave her away already.

“That is a very specialized piece of equipment. I have only seen one once before. Of course that is not surprising given how tightly the salarians tend to hold onto their technology.” He noted the surprised look on Charlie’s face and then continued. “So given all of that information, I am going to guess that this does not belong to a young farm girl with a smart mouth and that you have no idea what this device is?”

Garrus was rather pleased with the way he had made Charlie shut up. However that pleasure only lasted for about 30 seconds before Charlie looked back up to him. Her large eyes had narrowed and though she was wearing a large smile there was no humor in her face. Wait, was she giving him an evil grin?

“You might be correct. This could be a Tevolge 9.” She idly bounced the data pad in one hand. “You could probably confiscate it from me and you might even be justified in doing so.” Charlie held the pad out to Garrus and waited for his arm to move to take it, before snatching it back. “However, the second you leave I will call the captain and let him know that you are on your way to bring it to him. I somehow doubt that a mere lieutenant, whose only job is cleaning the mud off the ground vehicles, would be put in charge of decrypting it. Much less looking inside of it.”

Garrus’ face turned very dark, as he narrowed his eyes and drew his mandibles tight to his face. She had him, damn the spirits. How she had found out his post he would never – Lia. Lia told her. Damn all of the spirits. Charlie held the pad out, as if daring him to take it.

“Or?”

As quick as the evil grin had appeared it was replaced by a genuine smile. “Well your second option would be to help me break into it and by ‘help’ I mean you show me how, none of this going too quickly for me to follow crap. Once we both have our curiosity sated, then we will both bring it to the captain. I imagine you might even get a promotion. Deal?”

Garrus didn’t want to smile, but his face betrayed him. “Deal.”

That is why Garrus spent the next few hours in the medical bay and missed his dinner. He tried to convince Charlie to let him take it and continue working on it alone, but she was having none of his excuses. Garrus found her to be delightfully infuriating. He wanted to hate her annoying habit of correcting him or calling him some word he didn’t know or how she would harass him endlessly when he made a mistake, but he just couldn’t. Garrus instead found himself doing all the same things back at Charlie. He kept expecting her to get annoyed with him, but instead she would laugh and throw it back in his face. She could take as well as she could give. Charlie was woefully ignorant with many basic technical skills, but she was a very quick study and Garrus wanted to show her more techniques than were necessary with the project. Eventually they were able to break into Ian’s personal files.

“Well this is disappointing.”

They had just opened the only other communiqué that had not been wiped. Charlie was staring at Garrus like he was an idiot. “What?” He asked.

“This is disappointing? Ian, or his pseudonym Charon, just mentioned that he is part of Cerberus! Cer-ber-us, Garrus that’s pretty bad.”

“Is this a human thing?”

Charlie slapped her face. Maybe no one knows about Cerberus, yet. “Sure, let’s just say it’s a human thing.”

“Okay, well what makes them so bad?”

Charlie had no idea what to say. She knew what made them bad, but all of that happened in the future, or well it happened in a game. “They’re … xenophobic terrorists … or, at least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

Garrus drew his plates above his eyes down and stared back at the message. “Well this message does not tell us very much; let us look through his programs.”

The rest of the information was a very odd mix. There was an entire folder that was filled with topological maps of the region the colony was in. It appeared that Ian was very interested in what lay beneath the settlement. However, there was no information about what that could be. There were also records that a large shipment of element zero had recently been sent to Mindoir, but Charlie didn’t remember that happening, nor had the Argo found any. There was one program that was very disturbing; to Garrus at least, Charlie didn’t understand it. The program had been partially erased, but Garrus was able to salvage enough of it to understand its purpose. It was a highly specific piece of programming that would allow the user to gain full access to the environmental controls of an asari ship. Garrus let loose a curse that his translator did not pick up.

“I’d ask you to teach me that one, but I’d probably butcher the harmonics.”

“This is bad.”

“I believe it is your turn to elaborate.”

“I probably should not discuss mission specifics with a human.”

Charlie gave him a look and propped one hand on her hip. “Honey, we are way past that.” She held a hand out and beckoned to him. “Give.”

Garrus sighed and decided to ignore all of his inner voices shouting reasons that Charlie shouldn’t know about the Malindra. “Fine, about two weeks ago the asari cruise liner, Malindra, was attacked by batarians. Almost all of the asari are missing and everyone else was slaughtered. It could have been a biological attack, but that does not explain why the rest of the levo-amino aliens were also dead. Also there was the problem of how the batarians were able to gain access to the environmental controls so quickly. We were chasing the batarians responsible for the attack … ”

“When you came to Mindoir.” Charlie finished for him. Garrus nodded his head.

Charlie paused for a moment as she put the information together. “There is another thing. A little birdie told me that there was supposed to have been a platform orbiting Mindoir and you didn’t find one. Those photos were satellite images. If the platform was missing …”

“The batarians could have taken it or Cerberus could have taken it after they picked up your friend.”

“If he helped in the attack on the Malindra, and it certainly appears that he did, then he is no friend of mine. Also nobody came to pick him up. I saw him during the attack, he was definitely there.”

Charlie suddenly chuckled, “Actually he was running back to the Hoover, when I saw him. He was probably looking for this.”

Garrus grimly nodded his head. “I think it is time we showed this to Captain Victus.”

“Agreed.”

Grace had already fallen asleep, as it was quite late, so they left her in the room after asking a nurse to keep an eye on the girl.

The trip up to the Captain’s quarters should have been unexciting, but Charlie was almost bouncing to see the inside of an actual spaceship. She kept trying to peer into every open room they passed. Eventually Garrus was forced to promise that he would take her on a tour later, to keep Charlie from slowing them down anymore.

They were finally standing in front of a rather inconspicuous door and Garrus was nervously shuffling his feet. “I should have sent him a message, before just showing up here unexpected.”

Charlie sighed and mumbled, “Do I have to do everything?” before tapping the call button.

“Yes?” A voice called from inside.

“Umm.” Garrus found that his voice had decided to take a vacation.

“Charlotte Nacht and Lieutenant Vakarian, uh, sir.” Garrus gave Charlie a terrified stare to which she replied, “Big baby”.

“Come in.”

They entered the room and saw a stern Captain Victus wearing only loose pants that were slit up the sides to accommodate his spurs. “It is 0100 hours; this had better be important Vakarian.”

Garrus ran a nervous hand over his fringe and gave a expectant glance to Charlie, however she was going to let him take the lead for moment.

“Well?”

“Sir, we have found some evidence that links a colonist by the name of, Ian Rodriguez, to the attack on the Malinidra and also to a human organization by the name of Cerberus.”

Victus furrowed his eyeplates and shifted his gaze to the beaming Charlie. “Explain.”

Assuming that he was talking to her, Charlie told them the tale of decoding the tablet. She left out the blackmail and implied that she had “tricked” Garrus into helping her break into the security. For the most part Charlie focused on the information they had discovered. When she finished her recitation, Victus was sitting in his desk chair with one ankle propped up on his knee, a hand slowly drumming on the desk, and the other stroking a mandible.

“Well this is both good and bad.”

“Sir?” Garrus spoke for the first time since coming in.

“It is good, because now that we know who to turn our attention on we might be able to avoid war with the batarians. It is bad, because now we know that we have a new powerful enemy and we might still have war with the batarians. You said you knew of this Cerberus?”

“I’ve heard rumors, captain, that’s all” Charlie answered, suddenly very shy.

“What rumors?”

“That Cerberus is a xenophobic terrorist organization and that their reach is longer and better funded than we would all like.”

Victus nodded his head slowly. “Well good job to both of you. I have a few calls to make and you should get some rest.”

The pair turned to leave and Victus added, “It is a good thing, that the tablet did not have an ‘erase if tampered with’ protocol. If it had, this meeting would have gone differently and I do not believe either of you would have wanted to be responsible for the loss of this valuable and, possibly, life saving information.”

Charlie and Garrus gave each other wide-eyed glances and quickly left the room looking properly chastened.

Victus would have actually chastised them both, especially Vakarian, but he was too caught up in the implications of this information and truthfully he was proud that a member of his crew had caught it. He wasn’t lying when he said he had a few phone calls to make, but he also had a letter to write.


	9. Chapter 9

Garrus never did take Charlie on that tour of the ship, but she couldn’t really blame him.  The next day they hit the Citadel and Charlie was a mixture of emotions.  She was excited to see the Citadel for herself and to actually get to leave the medbay, however Charlie had very much enjoyed being on the Argo and was remiss to leave it, Cecilia, and Garrus.  She wasn’t sure if she would ever see him again and he had turned out to be a fascinating person and an excellent verbal sparring partner. 

 

When she actually stepped out of the ship and saw the Citadel, all thoughts of remorse over leaving the Argo vanished.  She and Grace pressed themselves against the glass and marveled the vastness of the station.  From where she was standing she could clearly see three of the five arms.  Charlie had never truly grasped how large it was.  Each arm could have held two or maybe even three large cities, back on Earth.  It had a sort of industrial and cosmopolitan beauty to it.  A clearing of a turian throat, pulled her attention from the spectacle.  She followed the soldier, Charlie wasn’t sure if he had given her a name, through the maze of hallways, elevators, and people to the human embassy.  They were unceremoniously left there in front of the door.  Charlie looked at Grace and put her back down on the floor.  The child had quickly decided that being held was the best way not to get lost in the swarm of aliens.  Charlie was incredibly impressed with how well Grace was handling the exposure, as she knew for a fact that Grace was born and raised on Mindoir and thus had never seen an alien.  The girl’s eyes betrayed her fear and she was slightly trembling, but other than that she was standing tall and very cautiously staring at the strangeness. 

 

Inside the room, Charlie found the receptionist at her desk. 

 

“What is the purpose of your visit to the Embassy and can I have your identification numbers?”  The red-haired woman asked in a bored voice, without looking up.

 

“Uh, I don’t think I have one and I don’t know Grace’s.  As to our purpose, I guess we are refugees.”

 

This time the woman did look up, though Charlie wished she hadn’t, because the woman gave her a slightly disgusted look.  “Planet and colony of origin.”

 

“Mindoir.”

 

“Name and date of birth.”

 

“I’m Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht, March 10, 2152, and this is Grace Talitha Wallis, December 4, 2162.”

 

The woman typed in the information and made a disgusted snort.

 

“There are no records of either of you.  The colony of Mindoir apparently didn’t deem it necessary to keep Earth informed of its occupants.  You will need to fill out a form to be submitted to the so-called leaders of this colony.”

 

This time it was Charlie’s turn to be disgusted.  “I don’t know who the hell died and made you queen, but whoever did also _deemed it necessary_ to make you deaf, as well as thick.  We are the only survivors, which is why I called us ‘refugees’, of the colony on Mindoir.  So if you would show even a hint of respect for the dead, I might not teach it to you.  I want to see the ambassador, as is my right.”

 

The woman looked taken aback and then leaned forward a bit with an evil smirk.  “If you are going to be hostile I can have C-Sec up here in five minutes, maybe you’ll see the ambassador after you meet your bail.”

 

Three minutes later, a very different red haired woman was showing them down the hall to the ambassador’s office.  This woman looked very similar to the previous receptionist, except that this one was being very courteous and was wearing a perfect representation of fear.  Also her hair was a mess and her lip was bruised and bleeding. 

 

The new receptionist knocked once on the door before opening it and announcing, “A Ms. Nacht here to see you, Ms Goyle.”

 

_Goyle?  I was expecting that bastard Udina, anything is better than him._

 

“Thank you, Ms. Shahari.  Send them in.”

 

As Charlie passed the nervous woman she said, “Thank you for your hospitality, Ms. Shahari.”

 

The woman blanched and Charlie suppressed the urge to chuckle.

 

Charlie walked into the large, yet unassuming office and sat in one of the offered chairs across from Ambassador Goyle.  Goyle looked to be in her fifties with salt and pepper hair swept up in a bun.  She was wearing a plain black jacket and a purple blouse.  She had the look of a sensible and honest woman with far too much on her plate. 

 

The ambassador gave Charlie an appraising look.  “If you can give me a reason to fire her, I will overlook what was surely an exuberant response to my receptionist.” 

 

“She spat on the names of the dead, refused to let us see our ambassador, and threatened to call security.”

 

“Very well, I suppose I should thank you for making my life easier.  Though now I have to go through the process of hiring another one.”  Charlie decided in that moment that she rather liked Ambassador Goyle.

 

“So what can I do for you?”

 

“We are the only survivors of the attack on Mindoir.  I honestly do not know what comes next.”

 

Goyle expression turned sorrowful, “I was sorry to receive that news a few days ago.  I have read the report on the attack, so I won’t ask you to relive that event again.”  She gave a small smile to Grace.  “However, usually refugees are directed to the next of kin.”

 

“Neither of us have any and I’m almost 18, at any rate.”

 

She nodded, “We don’t actually have any records of you existing.  Would you care to tell me why that is?”

 

Charlie took a deep breath and told the story she had been practicing, “I am an orphan and I do not know my parentage.  I grew up on Omega and when I was twelve I was taken hostage by a human male, for questionable uses.  After an in-flight emergency caused us to crash land on Mindoir, I was found and taken in by Ethan Wallis and his wife.  I have been there ever since.”

 

Charlie had said all of that in one breath without breaking eye contact with the ambassador.  Goyle raised a single eyebrow at the fabrication and then twisted her lips in a smirk.

 

“That is quite the tale.  Vague enough that I can’t follow up and poke holes in it; and it has a dash of personal trauma that I’m sure was carefully crafted to illicit sympathy.  Very well done.”

 

“Where did I lose you?”

 

“You have terrible delivery.  I’m a politician and I have seen through much better liars than you.”  The woman was still smiling though, so it gave Charlie a small sense of hope.  “Now the question becomes, what could be so bad that you would like be known as a scarred Omega orphan?”

 

Charlie looked at Grace, “The truth is I don’t know how I came to be on Mindoir.  I’m missing key pieces of my memory, however I can’t tell you that because if I do you probably will not let me stay with Grace.  I promised both her and her father that I would continue to protect her.  What I said about Ethan Wallis was true.  He did find me and both him and Dr. Deborah Wallis allowed me into their home.  I am not leaving Grace and so I can’t have you thinking that I am a mentally damaged amnesiac.”

 

“You are not even 18 and you have no claim to her.  I’m very sorry.  I wish there was something I could do.”

 

Charlie’s impassioned plea for Grace was cut off before it began by a knock on the door. 

 

“Admiral Hackett to see you ma’am.”

 

This announcement was followed by the door suddenly opening to reveal a much younger, than Charlie knew from before, and brown haired Admiral Steven Hackett.

 

“I’m not alone, Admiral.”  Goyle motioned to the two girls.

 

“I’m well aware of that, Goyle.  I’m actually here to talk with all three of you.  I apologize for my lateness; I was only recently made aware of this situation.”

 

All three women, well two women and a girl, looked thoroughly confused by this statement.

 

“Charlotte Nacht I assume.”  Charlie stood to shake his hand before finding her seat again.

 

“It is my understanding that I have you to thank for some very interesting intel.”  At the confused nod of Charlie’s head, he continued.  “I had the pleasure of receiving a very intriguing letter regarding your actions both on Mindoir and on the Argo.  For someone so young, you do not make a habit of sitting down when there is work to be done.  I will need a full report on what you know about Ian Rodriguez, but first I would like to make you an offer to join the Alliance Military.”

 

Charlie’s eyes widened and for a fraction of a second she considered accepting the offer.  She would surely have a career there and it was being offered by an Admiral certainly that was quite the honor.  However, there was Grace.  Grace needed her and Charlie could not let her be put in foster care.  Even if her new plan to avoid this consisted of stealing the girl and finding somewhere for the both of them to live; perhaps she would end up on Omega after all. 

 

“I’m sorry, sir.  I have to decline the offer.”

 

The ambassador’s face was the exact embodiment of the phrase, “Are you mad?”  The Admiral just chuckled.  “Yes, I was informed that you would say that.  However I had to try.”

 

“Captain Victus seemed to really take a shine to you though.  It is good to know that even Mindoir, can produce individuals with tenacity and fire; individuals who can work very closely with our alien neighbors, even turians.  I believe there was an agency that was recently looking for human individuals with those qualities, wasn’t there ambassador?”

 

Charlie started to feel like she was being played and it appeared that Goyle was in on it as well.  The ambassador looked like someone had dropped a large chocolate cake on her desk, as she gave Charlie a hungry appraising look.

 

“I do believe that memo crossed my desk as well, Steven.”

 

“Yes, Captain Victus also thought this would be a good fit and sent his recommendation there last night.”

 

“Can I ask what agency this is now?” Charlie looked between the two of them expectantly.

 

“Citadel Security, if you choose to accept.”

 

“C-Sec?  I’m not a trained police, nor am I qualified.”

 

“I was under the impression that you had spent the past year being trained ex-N6 marine Commander Wallis.”

 

“I didn’t know his rank.”

 

“Regardless, you have enough recommendations that they will accept you.”

 

“I’m not 18.”

 

“Citadel Security is almost completely comprised of turians, with a handful of asari and salarians.  Turians would consider you old enough to join.  There is a training camp starting in two months, more than enough time to learn the rules and regulations.”

 

“What about Grace?”

 

“Well even turians would consider her far too young.”  Charlie gave him an exasperated look and Hackett had a twinkle in eyes and a small smile for her.

 

“If you are referring to her care, then I assure you that you will have enough time to see to her.  I am also willing to transfer her to you as a ward after your eighteenth birthday.  As for right now, I have assumed that position.  The unfortunately confirmed death of her father will leave her his pension until her eighteenth birthday.  We can have you both in an apartment by this afternoon, should you choose to accept.”

 

“I don’t know … why?”  Charlie was completely overwhelmed by this turn of events.

 

Hackett gave her a firm look.  “Ms. Nacht who are you trying to convince of your failings?  Me or yourself?  If you are trying to convince me, then you can go ahead and stop right now.  You will not succeed in that regard.  If you are trying to convince yourself, then I would recommend you stop right now; though I do know from personal experience that that can be easier said than done.  As to why we want you to be in C-Sec, I cannot speak for the others, but I want you there because I want to keep an eye on you.  You are obviously capable and driven and if you won’t join the Alliance, then I want you in a position where you can do the most good.

 

“So, what do you say?”

 

Charlie paused to consider all of this information.  This was definitely not something she had even considered.  Charlie was the kind of person who like to have a plan.  Lately she had not had a plan for the insanity that had become her life.  She had not had a plan for jumping into the future, she had not had a plan for the attack on Mindoir, and now she did not have a plan for joining C-Sec.  However, this did _seem_ like a good idea.  It certainly beat her current plan of running away to Omega.  So she said the only thing she could. 

 

“I accept, sir, and thank you.”

 

“Do not thank me yet.  I may have failed to mention you will be the first human to join the ranks of C-Sec.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Are you sure about her?”  Goyle asked the admiral after the two girls had left.

 

“No, I can’t say that I am.”

 

“She might not be stable.  I don’t think she is dangerous, but …”

 

“I would be concerned if she was stable.”  He turned to look at the ambassador.  “You’re wrong though, she is dangerous.  Nacht needs to be in a place I can watch her.  If we didn’t give her direction, I have no doubt she’d find it elsewhere.  Also, she is somehow caught up in this Cerberus mess.”

 

“So we watch her?”

 

“Indeed.  We’ll hope that I’m wrong and Nacht turns out to be an average woman with an above average knack for finding herself near trouble.”

 

“I believe that would still qualify her as dangerous though.  I’ve seen how she gets out of trouble.  That reminds me, I need a new secretary.”

 

* * *

 

 

Grace Wallis was not sure if she should be allowed to feel happy.  Well she was happy, sort of.  She was currently eating the most delicious thing she had ever tasted.  Apparently this blue lady with tentacle hair had invented something called ice cream cake.  Now Grace had obviously had both ice cream and cake before, but she had never even considered putting them together into one glorious concoction.  The weird blue lady was clearly a genius.  For some reason though the cake was also making her sad, she thought she knew why.  It was because Grace really wanted to share this with her friends, Vicky and Ryan.  Though mom probably wouldn’t let her eat this before dinner anyways.

_Mom.  Oh, that’s right she’s … dead now.  Everyone’s dead now._

 

Grace looked over at Char.  Charlie had looked sad ever since that day too.  Though Grace didn’t think any of the adults could see it.  She knew better though.  Char was _always_ making jokes, but Grace hadn’t seen her laugh at all.  Well she had laughed when Mr. Garrus was there, but he only came to see them once.  So, Grace did her best to make Charlie smile.  She put her best smile on, the one that usually worked miracles on Charlie, and did her best to hide her own grief.  Grace knew that Charlie had saved her and she wasn’t going to repay that with tears.  If she cried, then that would mean she was being ungrateful. 

 

Right now though Char was staring down at the remains of her own slice of cake and was looking miserable. 

 

“Grace …”  Charlie’s face was still turned towards her plate, but her eyes had found Grace’s own.

 

“Grace, do you want to talk about it?”

 

“Talk about what?” 

 

Grace thought she probably knew already.  That stupid doctor with her silly face had tried to make her talk about that terrible day earlier.  The doctor had told Grace to call her “Doctor Maryann” and Grace had told her that that was a stupid name for a doctor.  She went on to say that her mom had been a real doctor and she had only four names: mom, Debbie, Deborah, or Dr. Wallis.  Her mom was never Dr. Debbie, because that sounded stupid.

 

“Dr. Maryann” had asked Grace to talk about her mom, but Grace _really_ didn’t want to.  She tried to make it seem that she couldn’t do her mom’s memory justice and it didn’t matter if Grace did talk about her mom, because “Dr. Maryann” was never going to meet her anyways.

 

“The day of the attack.”  Charlie was still holding her plate, though her position had shifted to a defensive posture.  Grace almost giggled at the thought of Charlie being scared of her. 

 

“I mean you were there and I was there.  There wasn’t a lot of time that we both weren’t there.  I mean what is there to talk about?”

 

Charlie sighed and set the plate down on their little coffee table. 

 

“Grace, we haven’t talked about your parents.”

 

“There isn’t much to talk about they’re dead.  I heard what that man said.  He said my daddy is dead too.”  Grace was starting to get very angry at Charlie.  Didn’t she know that there was nothing to talk about?  This conversation would only end with Charlie getting sad and Grace did not want that to happen again.

 

“They might gone, but we aren’t.  We have to remember them, because we knew them best.”

 

“I don’t want to.  Why can’t we just move on?  We have a new house,” Grace gestured at the living room in their new apartment.  “I’m going to go to school here and nobody is going to know about my parents or Mindoir.  Why can’t I just pretend that it didn’t happen?”

 

Charlie looked very surprised.  As if what Grace had said, had never occurred to her. 

 

“You can’t just forget them, Grace.  They loved you and they made you who you are.  I really like who you are … and when other people meet you they are going to like you too.  That means that it’s important to remember them.  To remember all of the good things, even if it’s hard.”

 

Grace looked down at her hands, she really didn’t want to look at Charlie anymore.  She didn’t want to let the woman see that she had started to cry.

 

“You know you reminded me of my own family, just now.”

 

Grace still didn’t look at the woman, but she was surprised by the statement.  Charlie had never talked about her family before.  Grace half believed that she sprang up from the ground fully-formed.

 

“I didn’t have a dad, but I had a mom, grandpa, and my bubbe.  That means grandma.”  The woman paused and Grace could see her out of the corner of her eye.  She appeared to be considering something.

 

“I’ll make you a deal.  You tell me something you miss about your parents or friends, and I’ll tell you something I miss about mine.  I won’t make you do it all at once, but once a day we’ll sit down and talk about the past.  Deal?”

 

Grace considered this.  She really, really didn’t want to talk about Mindoir, but she was extremely curious about Charlie’s past.  She turned to look at the woman.  Grace had to be sure that Charlie wasn’t sad, she wouldn’t be able to say “yes” if Char was going to cry.  Charlie was just sitting there looking at her, with a concerned look.  Grace didn’t think it was sadness though.

 

“Deal.”

 

* * *

 

 

The next two months passed slowly for Charlie.  She had gotten Grace into a school and the girl seemed to be doing quite well for someone who had never seen an alien before.  In fact, Grace seemed to find the aliens fascinating and was constantly bringing a new one home.  After about a month though Grace settled into only bringing over a core group of friends, there was Darius, the turian, and Mya, the asari.  This, of course meant that Charlie had to keep dextro food in the kitchen, but she actually rather enjoyed seeing what the species were like as children.  However, she did not enjoy meeting the children’s parents.  Both the turian and asari parents seemed to think that Charlie was ill-suited to be a parent.  Naturally, Charlie had assured them that Grace was simply her ward and that she was not substituting either of her parents. 

 

The asari were easy to win over, by promising that she would not let the children out of her sight and that they were never to leave the apartment complex.  This was simple, considering the apartment building was so large that the small primary school was contained within its levels. 

 

The turians were considerably harder to convince of her ill intentions.  The mother had been willing to trust her, but the father refused to let Darius come over alone.  That was until he caught Charlie working out in the gym one day. 

 

She had been using a practice dummy as a sparring partner when he walked in.  Tevan asked her if she wanted to spar with him and she gladly accepted.  Charlie thought that her technique was getting old, since she hadn’t had a real partner in a few weeks.  Tevan was good, but not great and left quite a few large openings in his guard.  Charlie took full advantage of his weaknesses and though he did get a few solid hits in, after a few minutes he was tapping out.  Tevan eventually asked her why she could fight like that and she simply responded with “I’m joining C-Sec.”  It had the benefit of being the truth, though not the whole truth.  It had the added benefit of Tevan trusting her enough to let Darius come over unsupervised.

 

It was odd being the primary caregiver of Grace.  Having a child was not something Charlie had ever, even with Justin, seriously considered.  She had thought she might get around to it in the future, of course, but it was always an undefined and vague notion.  Actually having one was … different.  It definitely helped that Grace liked her quite a bit, although she didn’t feel comfortable with the girl’s blatant idolization of her.  However, it was difficult not having anyone to fall back on.  Her own mother had always been single, but she had her grandparents to help her.  Charlie didn’t have anyone and she was not about to ask for help.  If the authorities thought that Charlie couldn’t handle the care of Grace, she didn’t think they would hesitate to take the girl away from her.  So Charlie struggled alone and she thought she was doing a decent job.  Though she was aware that that might change once she actually started working at C-Sec. 

 

Speaking of her soon-to-be new job, Charlie was extremely nervous about starting there.  Executor Pallin was not impressed with her and had made sure that she was very much aware of it.  Actually it was probably a good thing that Charlie would have to prove herself, because that was forcing her into preparing.  She would spend long hours in the gym and spend every night going over codes and regulations for the Citadel.  Charlie was also slowly memorizing the layout of the station.  Tevan may not have been a challenging sparring partner, but the event had reminded Charlie that she didn’t know much about turian physiology and fighting tactics.  They had a significant height and reach advantage over Charlie and they tended to use their legs in close combat.  It had taken a vid call to Hackett to ask about personal trainers.  He suggested one that worked for the Alliance and Charlie decided it was wiser to not question the Admiral about who was going to pay him. 

 

The trainer was strict and was of the opinion that yelling got the best results, however he was also very good.  So Charlie ignored his screaming.  Waterby taught her about turian weaknesses and apparently there were not many of them.  The waist was sensitive, as was under their crest and around the cowl.  Under the arms was a good place as well, as Charlie had already discovered, and also their leg spurs.  The best option was to get in close, to minimize the reach advantage and focus on their legs.  When attacked properly they would fall quickly and they were not as fast at getting up as a human was.  So basically, you can’t be stronger or longer than they are, but you can play dirty, be more flexible, and, if you really work at it, you can be faster.

 

Eventually her two months were over and Charlie found herself in the C-Sec Academy standing nervously.

_What are you doing here?  You’re not ready for this.  Just back out now before someone sees you.  Charlie just leave, no one will blame you._

_I’ll lose Grace._

_Damn.  Carry on then._

 

 She ran her hands through her short black curls and took a deep breath before approaching the front desk.

 

“I’m here the orientation.”

 

The small asari looked up at Charlie.  Her large lavender eyes bore into Charlie’s grey.  “Are you sure?”

 

“Yes, I think I am.”

 

The asari nodded and looked back her screen.  “Well Charlotte Nacht, we received your medical clearance this morning.  So this will be your last chance to walk away …”

 

“No, I’m going.  Why do keep repeating that?”

 

The receptionist gave a quick look around the almost empty room and leaned in closer to Charlie.  “Well we kind of have a pool going.”

 

“A pool?” Charlie repeated the words while blinking her eyes.

 

“Yeah just a friendly office wager.”

 

“About me?”

 

The woman gave her a smirk.  “You aren’t the first human sent here.  There have been four others, though you are the first female and the first non-military.  They all start out with bravado and eventually they run home crying.”

 

Charlie’s only response was a raised eyebrow and some more rapid blinking.

 

The asari’s smirk widened and she placed a small blue hand delicately on her chest.  “I don’t want you to think that _I_ have done anything to their premature departure.  I assure you that they left all on their own.”  The woman let her eyes slowly drift over Charlie’s form.  “I’ve given you two weeks.  However that might be generous.  You are extremely young and rather unimpressive looking.”

 

Charlie stood there for a second.  Who did this tiny blue bitch think she was?  Unimpressive am I? 

_You realize that she’s playing you, right?_

 

Charlie let a small smirk play around her mouth.  “You should have let me know that there was money riding on this.  Put down 100 credits for me lasting a month; I’ll trust you can find the bookie.  You said the orientation was this way?”

 

Charlie gave the woman a cheeky wink and walked off in what she hoped was the right direction.

 

The receptionist watched the tall woman leave and muttered under her breath too low for Charlie to catch.  “Maybe I should change that bet to three weeks.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone is reading this, but I'm going to slow my schedule down a little. I'll be updating every 2 or 3 days now. I have everything planned out and mostly written, but I'm struggling with pacing. Sometimes I feel like I'm going too fast and other times I feel like I'm going too slow. I'm sitting on my hands right now to prevent myself from rewriting a few of the past chapters. Anyways, as always if anyone has a criticism they want to throw my way. Please, do so. I am still aware that I need it. Also, as always, if anyone is reading this: you are a sexy beast and I love you.


	10. Chapter 10

**January 2171, _The Argo_**

 

“Staff Lieutenant Vakarian, stand down.”

 

Garrus looked at his commanding officer, Commander Tredan, and then back at the sniveling scientist, Dr. Roca.  Standing down was the last thing he wanted to do, however he eventually followed orders.  Though he did drop the scientist to the ground rather harshly.

 

“I didn’t have anything to do with the attacks, I swear.”  The simpering doctor was apparently also a fool.

 

“You are standing in the facility that created O-E.  Do you honestly take us for idiots?”  Garrus roared at the small human male.

 

The male was shaking on the ground.  He hadn’t even pulled himself out of the crumpled heap Garrus had left him in.  “I’m just a … researcher.  I … I didn’t tell them to use it.”

 

“Biological warfare is illegal for a reason, Doctor.”  Garrus put so much venom into the last word that Dr. Roka cringed.  “Tell me why this drug was invented.  I am aware that you were the leading researcher.”

 

“We … I was paid to discover a way to neutralize biotic threats.  I wasn’t told why or even who.”

 

“Does neutralize mean murder?  Because that is what you have been doing.  I find it hard to believe that a _respectable_ scientist would create such a weapon.”

 

Dr. Roka looked sharply at Garrus with the first emotion other than fear he had exhibited.  He slowly stood up and straightened his back.  “You soldier types don’t understand. It was near impossible to get research money for my own projects.  I was paid handsomely for this and I won’t be lectured on medical ethics by god damned turian.  I might have ignorance to fall back on, but what is your excuse for releasing the genophage?”

 

Garrus grabbed the front of Dr. Roka’s jacket and pulled him close.  “I hope the money was worth it, because you are going to spend a very long time in prison for the murder of thousands of asari.”

 

The doctor started to seize, his eyes rolling back in his head, and foam forming at his mouth.  “Spirits, we need a medic in here!  We’ve got another one.”

 

He laid the doctor on the ground, but he knew it was too late.  Tredan walked over from the computer console to look at the dying man. 

 

“Already?  I thought we had taken enough precautions.  Aren’t we jamming the signal?”

 

Garrus rocked back to sit heavily on the ground.  “Apparently it wasn’t enough.  I’m getting damn tired of this shit.” 

 

He really was tired of it.  For the past seven months the Argo had been hunting Cerberus.  Mostly they had only found abandoned facilities, but this time was different.  This was an active lab.  The information about the facility came through rather unsavory sources, but Captain Victus followed the lead anyway.  Apparently even the Shadow Broker did not wish war with the batarians.  Of course the Hegemony had long since denied responsibility for the attacks, but the Council of Sisters was still livid.  Especially considering that the attacks while much smaller on scale since the Malindra, were still ongoing.

 

The Argo had only managed to capture three other Cerberus operatives.  All three of them had a device at the base of their spine that could be remotely triggered to release a deadly neurotoxin.  All three of them were dead.  The Argo crew really thought that this time would be different though.  This time they had thoroughly jammed transmissions before attempting to take the base, however that apparently was not enough. 

_“Commander Tredan?  We had a bogie slip through.  What’s your situation?”_ The radio sputtered.

 

“We’ve lost Dr. Roka.  Repeat, Dr. Roka is dead.”  Tredan grimly informed the Argo.

_“Understood.  Did you get a thorough copy of the computers?”_

 

Garrus gave Tredan an expecting look.  He wasn’t sure if they had and honestly he had forgotten about that part of the mission after he saw Dr. Roka.

 

“No.  The signal must have wiped the databanks as well.  We are on our way back now.”  Commander Tredan motioned for Garrus to stand and they began picking their way back through the moon base.  “What is the status of that bogie?”

_“It was a small unmanned craft broadcasting a signal.  We were unsure of its intent, but we have taken it offline now.”_

 

“If they were able to send a physical craft to broadcast the kill switch signal, then there has to be somebody close.  Very close.”  Garrus mused as they continued to walk.

 

“I agree, but I’m sure the Argo has already scanned for ships.”

 

“They can’t have jumped to FTL without us picking them up.  They must still be here.  We can find them.”

 

“Well we’d better hurry then.”

 

By the time they made it back to the Argo, the ship’s sensors had picked up the location of the Cerberus craft.  It was small.  Large enough for only fifty people at the most.  It was also stationary.  When the Argo neared the vessel it didn’t even try and flee.  In fact the ship radioed the turians and requested permission to dock.  Captain Victus cautiously agreed, however he had a full twenty man contingent with him when the airlock opened. 

 

A small, although to Garrus most humans were small, dark skinned human male was the only person to greet them.  Though his physical stature was not imposing the manner in which he held himself was complete arrogance.  The man casually took in the turians and seemed to dismiss them and focused on Captain Victus. 

 

“Captain Victus, I have a proposition for you.”

 

“I do not make a habit of negotiating with terrorists.”  His response was cool and immediate.

 

“That is a good policy to have.  However I am merely an emissary and definitely not a terrorist.”

 

“I believe the council, especially the asari ambassador, would disagree with that claim.”

 

“Perhaps though _I_ believe that what I have to offer will change her mind.”

 

Victus was silent for a moment, clearly considering his words and trying to find an answer within them.  “And who are you, exactly?”

 

“I have already stated that I am an ambassador to Pluto.”

 

“Is that supposed to be the new name of the Illusive Man?”

 

The man visibly twitched at the title.  “That is the name others have given him, not one he chose himself.  You may call me Charon.”

 

Garrus growled at the man.  “How about we call you by your actual name, Ian Rodriguez?”

 

Ian turned his head quickly to Garrus and a flash of something, fear perhaps, resonated in his eyes.  His mouth opened as if to ask a question, but Garrus cut him off.

 

“If you’re not a terrorist, then how do you explain Mindoir?”

 

Ian, because it was definitely Ian, took a half step backwards before catching himself.  Victus turned to Garrus and gave him a warning look that was silently commanding him to shut up. 

 

“Why don’t you tell me the offer that this … Pluto wishes to make to the council?”

 

“Right … ” Ian cleared his throat while casting one last wary look at the menacing Garrus.  “Pluto would like to turn over the locations of the batarian renegades responsible forthe tragic attacks of the past few months.  Our organization was hired to produce the chemical known as O-E.  We take no responsibility for the batarian usage of the drug.  This base is in the Terminus Systems and, as such, is not in the jurisdiction of the council.  We have stayed perfectly legal.  However, once we were sure that it was our compound that was being used; we would be remiss if we did not turn over any information we have on the extremists.

 

“I would also ask that any and all personnel be returned to us immediately.  As I’m sure you must realize that there was no illegality to our activities in the Terminus System.”

 

“As I’m sure _you_ are aware, all of the staff on the base are dead.”  Garrus could almost feel the rage thrumming through Victus’ subvocals and wondered how the human wasn’tsent running by them.  Perhaps human ears weren’t sensitive enough. 

 

“That is most unfortunate.”  Ian had responded far too quickly and with a notable lack of remorse for the lives lost. 

 

The captain eventually led the wretched man back to the conference room for the call.  Garrus stayed behind to talk to Commander Tredan.

 

“This can’t really be happening.”

 

Tredan looked at the younger turian and nodded his head.  “As much as I would like to pretend it isn’t, it is.”

 

“But we can’t just let them get away with this.  They have clearly orchestrated the whole event.  The hell of the past six months is their entire fault.  What about the men they’ve installed with kill-switches.”

 

“What proof of their involvement is there?  None.  We don’t have anything.  We haven’t been able to actually catch them doing anything.  The closest we have gotten was that last lab and as soon as we breach it, this guy shows up.  Clearly we are getting close to them and they are cutting their losses.”

 

“If we’re getting close, then we just have to keep going.  We can bring them all in.”

 

Garrus was fervent, but Tredan was sadly shaking his head.  “The council will agree to this.  I know it doesn’t feel just, but if the council doesn’t agree then I can promise you that Cerberus will force a batarian conflict.  Maybe we will also succeed in wiping the organization out, but war with the Hegemony is too great of a price.”

 

Garrus closed his eyes and rested his head against the cold bulkhead.  “So the council gets a few hundred batarian ‘extremists’ and strings them up for their crimes.  The masses feel better, because ‘justice’ has been done and the real criminals get to fight another day.  This is a shallow victory.”

 

Tredan clapped a hand on Garrus’ shoulder.  “This is the real world of war and politics, every victory is shallow.”

 

“I could use a drink.”  He groaned.

 

“I’ll buy you one the next time we get shore leave.”

 

* * *

 

**_July 2171_ **

 

“That top is absolutely scandalous.”

 

“Good.  Now is it closer to ‘throw that woman over my shoulder and charge for the nearest darkened room’ or is it ‘screw the darkened room I’m getting her naked right now’?”

 

Garrus sighed and looked Lia who was adorned in an almost sheer, red, floor length skirt with slits in the sides up to her hip bones and a “shirt” that was more of a scarf that had been cleverly wrapped to barely conceal her perfect waist.  It was also made of that same sheep red material.  She looked gorgeous, but he did not want to share her beauty with the entire Citadel. 

 

“It is more along the lines of ‘I’m not going to let you out off the ship, because I don’t want to spend the night fending off droves of males’.”

 

Lia purred with pleasure.  “Well that’s not what I was going for, but I’ll take the compliment.  Now we need to leave before the club fills up.”

 

“No, seriously you need to change.”

 

Lia placed one hand on her hip and stared him bemused.  “Garrus Vakarian just because you outrank me, does not mean you are the boss of me.  I look charming and I’m wearing this.”

 

Garrus made a show of grumbling at her, but he knew when he was beat.  “Alright we’ll go, but I am getting very drunk tonight.  Tredan has owed me that drink for over six months now.  I think I have accrued some interest on that debt.”

 

They met Tredan outside of the ship in the docking bay.  He was dressed in a similar fashion as Garrus was, but where Garrus was wearing black accented with his own Vakarian blue; Tredan was wearing a muted grey with slashes of his dark red.  Garrus was suddenly aware of how attractive Tredan was by turian standards and immediately took a defensively possessive stance around Lia. 

 

If Tredan noticed he had the grace not to say anything about it.

 

“There you are.  Took you long enough.”

 

“It really has been far too long.  Haven’t you boys been planning this for almost half a year?”  Lia responded while nudging Garrus to stop him from hovering.

 

“We have.” Garrus gave Lia a false wince at the gentle jab to his side.  “However, someone decided that Palaven wasn’t good enough for a couple of drinks.”  He looked pointedly at Tredan.

 

“What can I say?  The Citadel has a lot more to offer.”

 

“What can the Citadel possibly have to offer that our home planet doesn’t?”

 

Tredan waited till they were all tucked into the rented aircar before he responded with a wild grin.  “Asari.”

 

After Tredan confessed to his love of the blue beauties, Garrus relaxed quite a bit.  Even the club that Tredan had picked was blessedly turian-free.  Technically he still had to compete with the plethora of asari and even some humans, but as far as he was concerned they had nothing on Garrus Vakarian.  He ended up drinking maybe a little too much.  Maybe more than just a little.

 

“Another one!”

 

“Wait which mission are we on now?”  Tredan was definitely more inebriated than Garrus.

 

“Uh … shit.  Did we drink to the dam break on that elcor colony?”

 

“I think we drank twice to that one.  Though the gravity was so horrible … I could probably drink again.”

 

“What about the tow we gave that hanar ship?”  Lia was trying to get in on the game, but she rarely went on the same missions as the other two.

 

“I wasn’t there!”  Tredan and Garrus loudly answered together.

 

“Well it was really interesting.  You know their engines are completely different from ours and …”

 

She was rudely interrupted by both males laying their heads down on the bar and snoring.

 

“Wait, I got it.”  Garrus popped his head up and signaled the bartender for another round.  “We’ll drink to Mindoir.” 

 

“That is a good one.”  Lia admitted raising her filled glass.

 

“We might even need several drinks to wash that one down.”  Tredan added with a smirk.

 

“To Mindoir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be a little silly, but I don't care because I like writing Garrus/Charlie interactions. :)
> 
> And no the Cerberus O-E plot was not canon, nor was how the drug worked canon. Cerberus did develop the drug though and it was a real thing that hindered biotic powers. I simply tweeked it and came up with a reason that Cerberus would make such a thing. 
> 
> We have over ten years to cover to get to the events of Mass Effect 1, so I will be making time jumps. However, I hope you can forgive me.


	11. Chapter 11

“Are you kidding me?  I get off in like ten minutes, Sharisse.”  Charlie groaned.  She had spent the night like she always did twice a week.  Walking a stupid beat in the “entertainment” section of lower Shalta Ward. 

 

She could hear the woman cursing in some native asari tongue that her translator didn’t pick up, before Sharisse spoke intelligibly.  “You were the one who told me to put you in my contacts for times like these.”

 

“And I regret that decision every night that you call me.  Fine, fine I’ll be there in five minutes, but I’m out for the day after this one.”

 

“I’m leaving too.  We both have families to get home to.”

 

“Don’t pull that farkakte on me, Sharisse.  You don’t have a family, you have a John.”  Charlie quickly closed the line before the woman could deliver her retort.  Prostitution may have been legal on the Citadel, but most of C-Sec hated them.  They responded slowly to calls from the girls or ignored them as best they could.  This had really bothered Charlie, so she started giving out her comm code to the prostitutes.  She just wanted to make sure that they were as safe as possible.  Unfortunately this policy had not endeared her to her commanding officers and they would stick her with the unsavory patrols.  Charlie should have been more offended, but she rather enjoyed the beat and never had any major problems with the citizens she met there. 

 

However she still wanted to get home.  Grace was spending the night at Darius’ and she had the whole apartment to herself, especially the bed.  Just the thought of her big, soft bed made her steps quicken to finish this last drunk patron call. 

_Maybe I can just throw them out without getting the drunk tank involved._

_We should be so lucky._

 

Sharisse was waiting for her at the door when Charlie arrived.  The asari really did look angry.  Charlie barely suppressed the urge to laugh at the scantily clad woman with her arms crossed and testily tapping foot. 

 

“You know when you put a jacket on; you are supposed to close the front.”  Charlie gestured to the open front that bared the woman’s, aside from the pasties, nude form.

 

Sharisse huffed at her and dragged Charlie through the empty club to the bar where three very drunk and very loud turians were laughing. 

 

“Alright people let’s break it up.  You can stay drunk, but you can’t do it here.”

 

The female was clearly the most sober of the trio, as she tried hopelessly to shush the two males.  “Guys, guys they called the … secur… security.”  She turned to Charlie and stood up clumsily.  That’s when Charlie noticed that the female was not wearing a shirt.  The female stared at Charlie for a moment and tried several times to say something, but it was like she forgot how to speak in sentences.  Eventually she said, “I’m terribly sorry for these buggers behavior.  Please don’t take us to jail.”

 

Charlie’s mouth dropped open.  She’d know that beautiful British accent anywhere.

 

“Cecilia Modius what are you doing here?”  Charlie walked over to the turian clad in black and pulled his head off of the bar.  “Garrus Vakarian!  Are you kidding me?  I don’t know who the other one is though.”

 

“Rudall Tredan.”  The grey clad turian announced with an awkward wave of his arms.

 

Charlie looked all three of the turians over.  Tredan and Lia seemed to be about the same level of drunk.  Which was very drunk, but able to move around on their own;  Garrus, however was well past that point and had passed out already. 

 

Lia had moved to hugging Charlie and was babbling something in a disorienting mix of Turian and English, whatever it was her translator had given up on deciphering it. 

 

“Oh you know each other wonderful.  Now if you could kindly leave so I can finish closing up.”  Sharisse was clearly still pissed and Charlie could understand why now.  The turian called Tredan was luridly hanging around her.

 

“I’m going to assume you don’t want to go back to the ship like this and I’m equally as sure you don’t want to spend the night in the drunk tank.  Right?” 

 

Lia and Tredan quickly shook their heads and Lia spoke up.  “We could take Garrus’ credit chit and get a room, but I don’t think we can find a … hotel right now.”

 

Charlie looked at the snoring form of Garrus and forcibly reminded herself that he once dragged her away from danger.  She owed it to him, right?

 

“Fine.  You can come home with me.  I have a spare room for tonight.  Are you two good to walk?”

 

As a response Tredan stood up slowly and Lia had to help steady him.  That’s when Charlie realized that she was on her own with the unconscious Garrus.  Grunting under the effort, she managed to get him over a shoulder and lift him completely free from the bar.  This was not the first time she had had to carry a drunken turian since joining C-Sec, but Garrus was definitely the largest one so far. 

 

With Garrus slung over one shoulder and she made her way to the closest aircar station.  The little sign told her the wait would be ten minutes.  Charlie looked around for a bench to set Garrus down on, but found none.  She was stuck there holding his heavy ass.

 

“I remember you!”  Tredan suddenly shouted from behind Charlie.  “You looked different though …”

 

“Well, yeah.  She wasn’t in a uniform then.”  Lia brilliantly deducted.

 

“Oh yeah that was it!  You tried to stab my friend here.  Didn’t she old buddy?”  He reached over and slapped Garrus heavily on the back. 

 

Perhaps it was the odd position he was laying in or it was the shouting and the slap, but some combination of the three jolted Garrus into consciousness and he found himself upside down.  With a mighty yell, he flailed on Charlie’s shoulder and the two of them hit the ground.

 

“Big guy, we have got to stop ending up in a painful pile.”  Charlie grunted the words as her face was pressed against the ground and a very heavy turian was lying on top of her. 

 

“What’s going on?”  Garrus moved as quickly as he could off of her.

 

“Well,” Charlie groaned as she pulled herself up off the ground and rubbed her face.  “You got drunk and I’m here to pour you in bed.”

 

“I have a girlfriend!  I’m not sleeping with a human!”  Charlie laughed at the sincerity with which he said this.  Also how he was crawling backwards, in an attempt to get away from her.  Lia’s laughter brought some sense to his hazy mind.

 

“You thought that a human female was dragging you back to her home to take advantage of you?”  Tredan managed to say between fits of laughter. 

 

“You haven’t met her.  She probably could.”  Lia giggled.

 

“I think she could do better than him though.  No offence, Cecilia.”

 

“Wait a minute.”  Garrus murmured after silently staring at her.  “You’re that crazy woman from Mindoir.”

 

“I’ve been called worse.”  Charlie shrugged.  “Oh look the cab’s here.  Let’s get your drunk ass home, shall we?”

 

Garrus protested that he could walk, but his legs betrayed him.  Charlie ended up half-carrying him all the back to her apartment.  By the time they got there, whatever part of his rational mind that had woken up had left again.  Her words ended being prophetic as she indeed ended up pouring him into her bed. 

 

“Are you sure you want to give us your bed?”  Lia protested.

 

“Yes, it’s fine.  Grace is at a friend’s house and I’ll take her tiny bed.  Rudall can sleep on the couch.”

 

“Are you sure?  You look so soft and comfortable.  I could imagine you were blue, if we turned off the lights …” 

 

“You are aware that you are speaking to a C-Sec officer, one that could and probably would kick your ass if you don’t remove that hand?”

 

Rudall almost lost his balance with the laughter that shook him.  Charlie rubbed her very tired eyes and counted all the reasons she shouldn’t make good on the promise.  She came up with three and his ass was safe for the night. 

 

“Good night, all of you!”  She announced before shutting herself in Grace’s room that was decorated garishly in pinks and purples.

 

* * *

 

 

Garrus’ head felt as though it might explode.  He pulled himself off of the soft thing he was laying on.  _Where am I?_ The last thing he coherently recalled was drinking with Tredan and Lia.  He looked around the darkened room and tried to put the pieces together.  The thing he was laying on was definitely a bed, albeit an extremely uncomfortable one.  Garrus might have thought he was in a hotel room, but the room was too cluttered for that.  With a groan he pulled himself out of the bed.

 

A door opened, but the light did not reveal the intruder.  Garrus went very still and readied himself for defense.  The breathing patterns of the intruder, told him that this was not a turian and was either an asari or human.  The footfalls were light and controlled, so he knew the individual was combat trained. 

 

The person was now very close to where he was hidden in the shadows.  Garrus heard a dresser drawer open.  There was a light rustling of cloth and then he heard the unmistakable snick of a weapon. 

 

Garrus launched himself at the intruder and managed to lift and pin her to the wall.  She felt very odd under his grasp.  She was quite strong and flexible, which was causing him great difficulties in keeping a hold on her. 

 

“Let go of me!”

 

That was definitely a human’s voice, which made sense since an asari would have thrown him back with biotics by now.  The woman suddenly twisted in a way that was impossible for a turian and kicked his chest solidly with her feet.  They both fell to the floor with a crash.  Garrus heard running footsteps outside the door and then he was bathed in impossibly bright light which made his head feel even worse. 

 

“What in spirits name is going on in here?”

 

Garrus knew that voice.  “Cecilia?”

 

Cecilia reached down and offered him a hand.  “You two are impossible.  Why does it always end with a fight between you?”

 

Garrus stood up and looked at the human female who was already on her feet.  She was only wearing a small white covering around her groin and an equally small white covering around her chest.  That left her waist completely bare.  She was tall for a human and about average height for a turian female.  The woman was not nearly as delicate and beautiful as a turian female though.  She was broad shouldered and though she had a narrow waist, it was the only thing about her that was feminine.  Somehow even though she was nearly naked, she cut an imposing figure and Garrus had trouble meeting her large grey eyes.  Wait, her grey eyes that were framed by curly black hair.  Charlie?

 

“I would like to point out that once again he started it.”  He immediately recognized that voice.  It was Charlie.

 

“You were suspiciously sneaking through the room and I know I heard a weapon.”  Garrus huffed indignantly. 

 

“I’m practically naked!”  Charlie gestured to her form.  “I know that doesn’t mean much to you armored turians, but to us soft humans.”  For some reason she shot a sharp look at Tredan at the word ‘soft’.  “Besides I am a C-Sec officer and this is my apartment, I think I’m allowed a weapon.  Now get out of here so I can put clothes on.”

 

Garrus really wanted to question Charlie about the C-Sec comment, but all three of them were forcibly ejected from the room.

 

The apartment was small, but comfortable.  A quick look down the hall revealed an additional bedroom and a lavatory.  Lia led him out to the living room which had a smalleat-in kitchen attached to it.  Actually every room appeared to be small, except for the large living room.  There were quite a few pictures on the walls, but none of them included Charlie.  They were all some configuration of a human male and female and quite a few included Grace.  It didn’t take much deducing to realize that was the girl’s parents.  The apartment did strike Garrus as odd though.  He didn’t know Charlie that well, but if he hadn’t just heard her confirm that she lived here, Garrus would have never guessed it.  She had no personal effects on the walls, no clue that she existed. 

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie couldn’t help the happy smile on her face as she pulled clothes on.  She had guests, real guests.  Not the parents of Grace’s classmates or the many partners that she had collected or call girls that decided to pay her back by forcing a makeover on her.  That last thought sent a shiver down her back.  _That_ had been an awkward night.  Two obvious hookers showed up at her door unannounced and decided to surprise Charlie with clothes and makeup.  It had been hard to explain the situation to Grace, but the girl took it in stride.  She was a trooper.  Eventually Charlie convinced them to focus their machinations on Grace, who absolutely loved getting attention.  When they finally left, Charlie had grimly decided to burn the clothes and most of the makeup, but she kept eyeliner.  She had no idea where two asari had learned to style hair, but they were brilliant.  Her curls were always impossible to manage, especially in a future where most natural curls had been bred out, but they had used some magical product to make them gorgeous.  So the evening had been a success after all.

 

These guests though were different.  They weren’t work related acquaintances, they were real.  Charlie had not realized how lonely she was until she saw them last night.  She had gotten along with them pretty well on the Argo and she dearly hoped she would, at some point, be able to count them as friends. 

 

When she emerged from her room she was wearing her usual loose shorts and shirt, she was also carrying the gun and her cleaning supplies.  She rounded the corner to see Garrus comically raise his arms to the air.

 

“Don’t shoot officer!”

 

“ **I’ve been getting some noise complaints, care to explain yourselves**?”  Charlie put on her sternest ‘cop voice’ she had in her arsenal, which was actually a little terrifying.

 

Garrus lowered his arms and smiled at her.  “That was pretty good.  I heard that voice from my dad often enough.  So what did you do that you got forced into C-Sec?”

 

Lia smacked his arm.  “Garrus Vakarian, becoming a C-Sec officer is an honor.  I know you aren’t thrilled about being forced into it, but most _reasonable_ people still consider it an honor.”

 

Charlie laughed at her.  She almost lost her balance and fell down, but managed to redirect her descent to land on the sofa.  Lia was giving her an indignant stare as Charlie wiped the tears from her eyes.  “He’s right, Lia.  It’s a punishment.  I am truly sorry for your loss, Garrus.”

 

She gave Garrus a sorrowful look that was usually reserved for funerals.  Garrus stared at the ceiling shaking his head.  “Thanks.”

 

Lia bounced down into Garrus’ lap.  “No, I don’t understand this.  Why are the two of you acting as though it’s a death sentence?  I, at least, understand Garrus’ trepidation, but Charlotte Nacht why are you acting this way.  The first human officer has to be an honor.”

 

Charlie sighed heavily and started to take apart her pistol to clean it.  “Do you know what C-Sec is mostly comprised of?”

 

“Turians.”

 

“Not just any turians, Lia.  Turians I can handle.  Oy vey, most turians love me.  However, these turians are old turians.”  Charlie noted the confused looks on two out of the three turians sitting in her living room.  “Let me point something out.  The only way to get nominated for a position at C-Sec is for a councilor or ambassador of your species to approve you.  This, of course means that most ‘rookies’ have years and years of experience under their belts.  C-Sec tends to be the place for turians, who are too old for military, to start a second career.  Hell, Garrus’ own father ‘the legend’ was a war hero before he ever made detective.  Naturally, this isn’t the case for the other species, but even they are much older than either of us.  You know you are in the wrong field when even the salarians are older than you are, right Garrus?”

 

Garrus nodded his head slowly.  “I should never have told my father I was thinking about joining the Spectres.  I just didn’t think he had that much pull.”

 

Everyone was silent for a moment and Charlie finished cleaning the pistol and tucked it under her shirt.  Tredan broke the silence. 

 

“So, uh, do you play that thing or is it for show?”  He gestured to her guitar that had been salvaged from Mindoir.

 

“Oh yeah I play.  It’s a muscle; I try to put in several hours of practice a week.”  Charlie picked up the instrument and lovingly stroked it.  It was her favorite item.  Playing music always made her feel normal.

 

“So,” Charlie sat back down on the sofa, pointlessly tuning the guitar.  Even though it was largely an electronic instrument, she couldn’t help herself and always manually tuned it.  “Requests?”

 

The three started talking about some music that Charlie had never heard of, but she dutifully nodded her head along with them.  Eventually they settled on a song, that was some odd combination of letters and numbers.  “Yeah I really don’t do requests, so you guys are stuck listening to whatever I want to play.”

 

The three groaned at her and started to protest, and Charlie was forced to admit that she didn’t really know any of their music.  “So has anyone here actually listened to Earth music?”

 

Lia was the only one who responded in the affirmative.  “Alright, well since I know both of you men don’t speak English, you should turn off your translators.  Just trust me.  Translators don’t work very well with deciphering sung words.  You can read the lyrics, if you really want to.”

 

“Wait you’re singing?”  Garrus had doubt written on his face.  “I’ve never heard human music with words.”

 

“That’s because music today has to be homogenized to be interesting to a wide alien audience.  It’s disgusting drivel.”  The cries of protest started again.  “Okay fine, it’s not disgusting drivel.  But every generation considers their music to be the best.  So humor me please.  I would apologize for my voice, but I doubt you will know what the original artist sounded like.”

 

Charlie positioned herself on the couch so she was facing Lia and dove into the song Kiss With A Fist.  She sang the lyrics at Lia, mostly because she thought it was funny to do so and also because if she sang to either of the males they might take her seriously.  Lia found the whole performance very amusing, but the men seemed to take it differently.

 

“Spirits, I know why you have so many fingers now.”  Tredan remarked when she had finished.

 

“Even your music is violent.”  Garrus said at the same time.

 

“Oooh, do another one!”  Lia also said simultaneously.

 

“Ugh, you liked that?  I totally butchered it.”

 

All three of them looked to be a different kind of amused.  Tredan had spent the whole song watching her fingers play through the chords.  Lia was immensely enjoying the entire experience of live music.  Garrus, however appeared amused that Charlie possessed this hidden talent.  He was watching her very closely and it was a little unnerving. 

 

“Can you do one that is less of this,” Tredan mimed strumming, “And more of this?”  He mimed picking strings.

 

Charlie chuckled a little to herself, “Yeah I can do that.  Garrus, didn’t I hear you say that my music was too ‘violent’?”

 

Garrus smiled smugly at her.  “You know something that is _less_ violent?  By all means.”

 

“Alright, but I’m not sure you turian types will like too much.”  Charlie met Garrus smug stare and started playing The General by The Dispatch.  Garrus’ face was so hilarious at the words of the song that Charlie almost stopped playing.  As it was, she missed her cue and had to follow the chorus through a second time. 

 

“The men left a battlefield?”  Garrus’ face was the very picture of military stoicism.  Charlie just grinned at him.  “That is outrageous.  That General should have had his command pulled.  It is not a soldier’s job to question orders.”

 

“Even bad orders?”  Charlie quietly questioned him.

 

“Yes, even bad orders.  Woman, you have no idea what you are talking about.”

 

Charlie let a smile play at the corners of her mouth while she quietly picked out the chords of the song.  “So who would be your superior?”

 

Garrus gave her a wary look.  “Anyone who is further up the meritocracy than me or has a higher rank.  Why?”

 

“So I think I can safely assume your father is higher than you and yet you are still fighting him tooth and claw over your assignment to C-Sec.”

 

“Yes, but I’m still going.”

 

“Fair enough, you are.  How about a certain lieutenant who helped an alien civilian break into evidence?  I don’t seem to recall having to twist your arm, too much.”

 

Garrus sat back in the couch and looked at her and by look we mean he glared.  “Fine.  It’s still not the same thing though.”

 

“I actually agree with you, but it’s so much fun to rile you up.”

 

Garrus continued to glare and Charlie continued to beam at him.  Finally Lia broke the tension.  “Alright how about another one?  Do you know any from my parent’s country?”

 

“Uh, I actually don’t know where you’re from.  I’m sorry.”

 

“Oh, well I was raised as a freighter kid, but my dad was from Ireland.”

 

Charlie blinked at Lia.  Firstly, she felt bad that she had mistaken her accent so badly, but then she found herself mostly curious at what had to be a fantastic back story.  _She did say dad.  I really want to know, but I should probably let her tell me._   “I don’t actually know any Irish songs off the top of my head.”

 

Lia looked a little distraught, so she added.  “I mean I know, at least one band.  I mean I don’t want to be offensive.   It’s pretty much the favorite band of every American rugby kid.  Hold on let me get the chords.”  Charlie felt it was very odd to play Flogging Molly for an Irish girl, but Lia was also a turian and the music was over 150 years old.  Maybe it was alright to do so. 

 

Charlie got up to grab her omni-glasses from her room.  When she came back she had them on and had already pulled up the music for Float. 

 

“What are those?”  Tredan asked, gesturing at her glasses.

 

Charlie took them off and handed them to the male.  “Essentially they are a repurposed omni-tool.  I felt that it would be beneficial to have information immediately in front ofme, but an omni-tool is very … obvious.”

 

Garrus was passed the device, which looked like two legs of a pair of glasses.  “I understand the need, I’ve been thinking of getting a visor myself.  Why didn’t you just get one of those?”

 

“Two reasons.  One, they are prohibitively expensive and it was a whole lot cheaper to just buy an older omni-tool and adjust it.  Two, I have been known to get punched in the face.  I really do not want a piece of glass right by my eye.”

 

“It’s actually a poly-resin and …”

 

“That still sounds painful.  Besides this is so much better, check it out.”  Charlie fixed the two legs firmly behind her ears and made a small hand motion to turn it on.  A clear orange bubble formed across her eyes.  “Now I have a fantastic VI program that I have written to anticipate my requests.  That way it’s as unobtrusive as possible.  I can question a suspect and have their full record scrolling through my screen.  If they try and lie to me, I can double check reports and pull up evidence against them.  The best part is that they can’t see the screen so they don’t know what I’m doing.  It’s also paired with my actual omni-tool for efficiency.  I love it.”

 

“Well I like it.”

 

“Thank you, Lia.”

 

“Actually I may have to rig up something similar.  I need my hands free when I’m working in the engine room, but I still need to use an omni-tool.  Could you send me the schematics?”

 

“I can do that, but I warn you I’m not an engineer.  Actually if you could send me back any improvements you make, that would be fantastic.  I know my design is shoddy at best, but I’m quite proud of the VI.”

 

The rest of the day was relaxing and full of friendly conversation.  Charlie was saddened to realize that the three had to leave.  Their presence had made her acutely aware of how lonely she was.  Even Grace was excited to have the company, when she got home from school.  Charlie had never been a social butterfly and she used to go days without contact of any kind, but she always had a core group of friends to fall back on whenever she needed them.  In high school it had been her Rugby team and as an adult it had been Justin, Tim, and Justin’s band mates.

 

When they left, Lia gave her a very welcome hug and she got arm clasps from the men.  At least Garrus would be coming back in a year to join C-Sec and Lia had talked about moving to the Citadel when her tour was up.  Tredan was a career military type, but he promised to stay in touch. 

 

Charlie waved goodbye to them and promised herself that the next year would be better.  The first year on the Citadel was mostly training and passing exams.  She had finally gotten out on her own.  She had a partner, but who that was changed monthly because no one wanted to get stuck with her.  Oh, they never said those words exactly, but Charlie knew it was true.  She had had been through four such men before.  Charlie knew it was because she liked to be involved with the people from the lower wards.  She was of the opinion that trust was the best way to maintain order, but the older, and more experienced, officers assured her that too much involvement was also a bad thing.  Charlie mostly ignored them, she wasn’t breaking any codes and she felt like she was actually helping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Charlie played "Kiss With A Fist" by Florence and The Machine  
> "The General" by The Dispatch  
> "Float" by Flogging Molly
> 
> I had to pick songs that I can play on the guitar alone and don't sound too plain. I would have loved to have played a different Flogging Molly song, but so many of them require at least a drummer or violinist to sound right.
> 
> Next chapter: someone else gets drunk, but there's also sad times. :(


	12. Chapter 12

**August 2172**

 

“She’s a pimp, sir.”

 

Pallin looked exasperated.  “You can’t prove a damn thing, Nacht.  If you could, then you wouldn’t need to convince me.”

 

Charlie ran a hand through her black curls, it was a nervous habit, but much less detrimental than her old ones.  “I told you I have a girl who will talk.  You need to get her into witness protection.”

 

“Nacht, this is not your jurisdiction.  You’re a beat cop.  You walk the beat and you keep the peace, if you happen to stumble across evidence you bring it to a detective.”  If this was the first time he was having this exact conversation, he might have been a little calmer.  However Charlie Nacht was a pain in his cloaca.  The fool woman was constantly stretching further than her reach.

 

“She is not evidence.”  Charlie was barely keeping her temper in check.  “I also brought this issue to Detective Cassius.  She informed me that Sharisse is not a credible witness.  I informed the ‘Detective’ that prostitution is a legal activity and Sharisse has no record of illicit drug use.  Cassius then called Sharisse a _whore_ to her face.  I will have all of you know that Sharrise Aleya is a 250 year old asari and she is many things, but whore is not one of them!”  By the end of her recitation Charlie had clearly lost her temper, as she was shouting at the Executor.

 

“Are you finished, Nacht?”  Pallin ground out.

 

“Not even close, sir.  I don’t care what the rules are on your planet, this is the Citadel.”

 

“Yes, it is the Citadel and on the Citadel who is in charge of enforcing the rules?”

 

“Citadel Security, I believe I am still a member of that _illustrious_ institution, sir.”

 

Pallin growled a low warning at Charlie, but she held her ground and glared at him.  “Nacht, you have been here for two years and do you know why you are still a member?”

 

Charlie made a small chuffing noise under her breath.  “Because the council refuses you every time you try and fire me.”  She smirked at Pallin’s furrowed eyeplates.  “I get a letter from Ambassador Goyle every attempt you have made.  I believe it has been three times already?”

 

“I was going to say it’s because you are a good cop and the only complaints I have ever had concerning your behavior have come from within the office.”

 

“If I’m such a good cop, then listen to me.  Matriarch Ryza is a monster.  I can’t prove it without Sharisse’s testimony, but she is responsible for, at least, two of the asari murders in the past few months.”

 

Pallin looked down at the data pad on the desk.  “It says here that those were textbook overdoses.  That’s not a m-”

 

“It _is_ murder, sir.  Ryza is forcing the ODs on any girls trying to walk away.  Trust me I would love to go to the Asari embassy and take this up with them, I have tried you know.”

 

Pallin gave a slightly amused growl.  “I am aware of the incident.”

 

Charlie gave him her own growl in response; it was a curious habit she had picked up from working so closely with turians.  “Anyways, I tried and they can’t prove I called them anything not befitting their station.”

 

“Curious, how nobody can ever prove that.”

 

“I’m not here to prove myself to anyone.  I’m here, because I refuse to find anymore dead asari hookers on my patrol.  I have a witness now; you just need to get the ball rolling, sir.”

 

“So now they’re hookers?”

 

“Yes, _legal_ hookers.”

 

“Detective Cassius has refused to work with you on this.”

 

Charlie sighed and again ran her hand through her hair.  “Fine.  I’m just a beat cop, after all.  She shouldn’t have to work with me, just as long as she does her job … I don’t care.”

 

Executor Pallin sat back in his chair, he had already assigned the detective to the case.  He really just wanted to see why Nacht had punched the insufferable woman.  Pallin really wanted to like Officer Nacht, but she made it damn near impossible to do so.  “You know if you’d stop assaulting your superiors maybe I would actually promote you.”

 

Charlie snorted at the executor, “With all due respect, sir, she started it.  If I hadn’t stepped in, Cassius would be a pile biotic soup right now.  Don’t lie to me, sir, I could start shitting roses and properly filed reports tomorrow, and I’d still never get the badge.”

 

Pallin actually laughed at Nacht, but not because she was wrong.  He wouldn’t be able to handle the political shit storm that would blow through if Charlie ever became a Detective.

 

“I’ll get Sharisse Aleya in the witness protection program.  Don’t worry so much, it’s being taken care of.”

 

Charlie gave him a short nod, saluted, and left the office.

 

“I believe thanking me would actually kill her.”  Pallin mused to the empty office.

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie was feeling pretty good as she made dinner for Grace and Darius.  She had actually made a difference today.  Sharisse was safely locked away and eventually Ryza would be off the streets.  She opened the oven door to check on the stroganoff.  It smelled fantastic.  Darius’ dinner was a pan seared yolane, which was a dark red fish, over a bed of what looked like short noodles, but was actually shaved trollan.  Charlie had never been a great cook, but she was a quick study and Grace had forced her to learn.  Darius, Grace’s turian friend, had forced her to learn to cook dextro cuisine as well.  That boy was staying over more and more often.  Charlie wasn’t positive, but she had her suspicions that his parents’ marriage was failing.  She liked them both and really hoped that she was reading too much into the situation.

 

“Darius.  Grace.  Come on out here and eat.”

 

The nine-year-olds running feet could be heard long before they were spotted skidding into the kitchen. 

 

“Thank you, Ms. Nacht.”  Darius said as he took his plate.

 

“Hey, how come you never call me ‘Ms. Nacht’?”  She asked Grace, with a playful smirk.

 

“Because you’re Charlie.”  The girl gave her a shrug.

 

“True, but you’re welcome Darius.  Let me know how it is.”

 

They all sat down at the tiny table in the corner of the kitchen.  Darius pronounced the dish ‘tasty’, but Charlie was well aware that he was far too polite to tell her if it was terrible.  _At least, I have yet to outright poison him.  So there’s that._ The stroganoff was delicious to Charlie and by the way Grace was eating hers, she must have agreed. 

 

“So anyone want to tell me about school?”

 

The kids looked at each other, before responding in unison.  “It’s fine.”

 

“That’s an informative answer.”  Charlie gave them both a wry look.  “Darius, I seem to remember that math was your favorite subject.   How’s that going?”

 

Darius gave a half hearted shrug.  “It is fine, I guess.”

 

Grace piped up, “He likes history now.”

 

“Ooh, I also like history.  What are you two studying?”

 

“We’re studying human history.  I think Darius only likes it, because _Marta_ likes it.”

 

This brought about a verse of “No, I don’t like girls.  Especially not human ones.” from Darius that was backed up by a chorus of “Darius likes girls” sung by Grace; Charlie desperately tried to keep from laughing, because it would only encourage them.  She failed and the two continued to harass each other.

 

A beeping from her omni-tool brought her out of her laughter and Charlie quickly left the room to answer the call.  It was work.

 

“This is Nacht.”

 

“Officer Nacht we have a code black with your name attached to it.  We are forwarding the address now.”

 

“Can I get a little more information first?”

 

“I’m sorry there isn’t any more at this time.”

 

The salarian officer ended the call and Charlie was forced to get quickly dressed.  The kids had finished eating and a call to Darius’ parents let her drop them both off.  She really hated to bail on them, but technically she was always on-call. 

 

Charlie was very nervous about responding to the call.  She made her way through the ward with leaden feet.  Code black meant that there was a body and the only reason her name would be attached to the call was if she knew the person.  That meant it was either one of the half a dozen people she actually knew on the Citadel or it was a duct rat or it was a prostitute. 

 

A small group of people had gathered around the quarantined alley way when she arrived.  There weren’t any reporters which meant it wasn’t a personal friend, but that didn’t help her feeling of dread.  If it was another kid, Charlie would lose it.  She had seen too many of them dead.  She tried to help them, but there was only so much she could do.  If it was another one of Ryza’s prostitutes she would personally oversee Sharisse’s protection detail.  Charlie didn’t care how many strings needed to be pulled. 

 

Charlie tried to make her way to the body when Detective Cassius stepped in front of her.  “Nacht, I don’t know why you are here, but you are way out of line.”

 

Charlie stared down at the small turian female.  “I was called here by dispatch.  Cassius, you better tell me what’s going on.”

 

“I don’t have to tell you shit.”

 

Charlie’s hand itched to hit Cassius again.  In her heart she knew why she was here, but she wanted Cassius to say something reprehensible to give her a reason to kick the crap out of her.

 

“Why are you here and don’t give me any farkakte.”

 

“That whore witness of yours OD’d.”  It was the smug way that Cassius said it.  It was exactly the way that Charlie imagined her saying it.  Her next move would be to the rip that smug face off of the bitch’s body.  Charlie had planned it.  But when Cassius actually said the words, it didn’t matter anymore.  Sharisse was dead.  Somehow Ryza got to her and did what Charlie had feared.  Sharisse who was her friend, who had done her hair and tried to make her go out and have fun.  Who had come over twice and watched Grace for her.  One of her only friends left in this stupid universe, and she was dead.  A victim of trying to do the right thing, a victim of honor.  Sharisse had never been one of Ryza’s girls; she was just tired of the dead women piling up.  She wouldn’t be dead right now, with her name being spat on, if Charlie hadn’t forced her to speak up.

 

Charlie stood there shaking not with rage, like Detective Cassius thought, but with grief.  “She was in protective custody.”  Charlie’s voice wavered just above a whisper.

 

“She was.”  The voice that was speaking now was much deeper and older.  Pallin motioned for Cassius to leave.  “The officers assigned to her detail said they didn’t see her leave the building.”

 

“Then they’re lying.” 

 

As soon as Cassius departed, Charlie made her way to the black plastic sheet hiding the body.  She pulled back the corner of it, despite the protests from the coroner, and looked at Sharisse’s face.  Sharisse had always been a dark purple color, but this face was pale … too pale.  There was foam at the mouth and when Charlie opened the eyes they were completely bloodshot.  There was a little trickle of blood slipping from a tear duct. 

 

“Red sand.  Looks like they fucking poured it her eyes.”  The voice that spoke these words didn’t sound like Charlie.  The syllables were flat and dead.

 

Pallin made a disgusted noise of agreement behind her.  “They’re not even trying to make it look like an accidental overdose anymore.”

 

“No.  This was a statement.  Tell me that her written testimony was enough.”

 

She could hear the Executor shuffling nervously behind her, so she stood up and looked him in the eyes for the first time that night.  Charlie had thought about hitting Pallin in the past, but had never seriously considered it till right then.

 

He must have sensed her thoughts, because he finally spoke up.  “Her testimony has been wiped.”

 

Charlie looked like she had been slapped.  “Are you kidding me?  Tell me that you are kidding me.  Tell me that this is horribly inappropriate joke to be had in front of the _dead_ woman who just gave her life for nothing.  If you can’t tell me that, then tell me you know which one of the _illustrious_ C-Sec officers did this.”

 

Pallin glared at Charlie and shook his head.

 

“God damn it all, Pallin!  Did they get the recording of the room too?”

 

Pallin nodded his head.

 

“I was there.  Detective Cassius was there too.  Surely, we can …”

 

“You know that that doesn’t count as viable testimony.”

 

“Son of a bitch.  I need to sit down and smoke a carton of Camels.”  Charlie kicked the wall and then slid down the filthy side of it to the even filthier floor.  She held her head in her hands and it took a second for her to recognize the light blue cylinder being thrust in front of her. 

 

“I don’t have your brand, but I can give you an Ignis.”

 

Charlie barely hesitated before sticking the paper wrapped tube between her lips.  “Got a light?”

 

Pallin lit her cigarette before lighting his own and leaning against the wall.  Charlie savored the sweet taste, it was nothing like her old menthols.  This tasted of cinnamon and spices, like a clove, but Charlie had always hated cloves.  This tasted like what she had always thought cloves should taste like.  There was still the strong hit of whatever kind of tobacco this was, but it was flavored with sweetness.  Charlie took long drags both savoring the taste and enjoying the slightly dizzying effect of the new drug. 

 

“I assume Cassius didn’t take a personal recording?”  She asked after a while.

 

“No, to be honest I was kind of hoping that a certain paranoid cop I know had done that.”

 

Charlie almost responded with a no, but then she remembered that her glasses are set to record by default. 

 

“Sir, give me a moment.  I might have something.”

 

She quickly shuffled through the day’s events, quietly praying that she had been wearing them.  When Sharisse’s face came up in the video, Charlie almost wept.

 

“Executor Pallin, I have the evidence.  I’m sending you a copy now and, with your permission, I’m forwarding one to every member of C-Sec.  They can’t erase them all.”

 

Pallin appeared to consider this for a second.  “Do it, but encrypt the message so they can’t play it.  Use my codes.”

 

“Done.”

 

“Good work, Nacht.  Go home and get some rest.  We’ll bring this in tomorrow.  Do you want in on the arrest?”

 

Charlie thought about it.  She really did want to be there when Matriarch Ryza was brought in, but it really was not her place.  Charlie was just an officer.  She wasn’t there for the glory and didn’t give a damn which detective got the praise.  Well she almost didn’t care.

 

“No, sir.  It’s not my place.  I do have one request though.”

 

“Don’t you worry, Detective Cassius will not get the arrest.  I’ll bring her in myself.  I’ll make a proper political stink over it too.  She will not be extradited to asari space; I’ll make sure of it.”

 

Charlie took another cinnamon sweet drag.  “Thank you, sir.  I’m sure Sharisse would have appreciated it.”

 

“Go home and take the next couple of days off.  You need it.”

 

“Is that an order, sir?”

 

“Does it have to be?”

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie wasn’t sure what Mya’s parents thought when she asked them if they could watch Grace for a couple days.  Mya’s father was a human and Charlie had always thought he had looked down on her as a guardian.  She was pretty sure Mya’s mother, Rychana, understood why she needed a few days alone.  Especially after the asari thanked her, but failed to mention what the thanks was for.  Charlie ignored most of this though and focused on Grace.

 

“I’m not leaving you, ok?”

 

Grace gave her a shrug. 

 

“Grace, I know I’m gone a lot for work and this is a work thing.”

 

Grace looked up at Rychana and leaned close to Charlie’s ear and whispered.  “Is this because that asari lady died?”

 

Charlie placed her hands on Grace’s shoulders looked at her questioningly.

 

“I saw it on the news.”

 

Charlie sighed heavily.  “She was a friend, a really good friend, and I need some time alone if that’s alright.  I should have just told you.  I forget how grown up you are, sometimes.”

 

Grace smiled at Charlie and gave her a hug.  “It’s ok, I forgive you.  I wanted to have a sleepover at Mya’s house anyways.  Maybe Darius can come over?”  Grace looked up questioningly at Rychana, who nodded.

 

After Grace and Mya had escaped to a back room, Rychana caught Charlie as she was leaving. 

 

“She’s really is more grown up than she should be.”

 

“I know, I’m doing the best I can.  Grace lost her parents too young, I can’t change that.”  Charlie was speaking defensively out of habit, whenever she was questioned about Grace.   She had had her for over two years now and it felt like she was still dodging attacks.

 

“No, you misunderstand me.  I’m sorry.  I meant that in a good way.”  She continued after noting Charlie’s confusion.  “Grace is a very calm child.  She thinks about her words before she speaks them.  This is unusual for a girl so young and yet she has been this way since I met her.  I have … sensed something in her.  You may want to have her checked for any dormant biotic potential.”

 

Charlie started to shake her head.  “No, that’s not possible.  Grace was conceived, carried, and born on Mindoir.  That planet does not have any element zero and as far as I am aware there have been no industrial accidents there.  I’ll check, but I feel fairly confident in that.  To the best of my knowledge, there is no way that Grace has any biotic potential.  She’s just Grace and full of empathy.”

 

Rychana looked skeptical, but bowed her head to head to Charlie’s explanation.  “Take care, Ms. Nacht, and thank you again.  I know that it was you who pressed the issue.”

 

It was Charlie’s turn to look skeptical. 

 

“I’m a receptionist at the asari embassy.”

 

Charlie blushed a deep red, remembering that loud and unfortunate incident.  “Sorry about that desk.”

 

Rychana laughed, it was a musical sound, and Charlie quickly left.

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie stood in her room.  She was wearing a pair of jeans, they had been very hard to find and she paid far too much for the familiar comfort, a spaghetti strap tight black shirt, and a pair of boots.  She scrounged around in the drawer until she found the only earrings she owned.  They were some kind of blue pearl that Sharisse had given her.  Charlie looked at the tangled excuse of a hairstyle and realized it was beyond help.  She sighed, then slipped her knife in its holster hidden at her back, fitted her pistol at her thigh and slipped a small concealed pistol in her boot.  She technically did not a permit for that one, but she was a C-Sec officer and the rules regarding weapons were a little loose.  Fully armed, she grabbed a long jacket and headed out the door.

 

Charlie told herself that she didn’t know where she was going, but that was a lie.  She was going to get incredibly drunk and go home with a stranger.  She needed or wanted, she wasn’t sure which and it didn’t matter, to get laid.  It had been a very long time since Justin and while Charlie was not the kind of person to drown her sorrows in alcohol and a stranger, it had been known to happen.  Once … maybe twice .. alright it had happened quite a bit.  Actually the last time she did this exact thing, Justin had found her and taken her home.  She wasn’t holding out hope for a repeat performance on his part, but if there was enough alcohol involved she could at least pretend it was Justin.  A sigh escaped her lips, Justin had been tall, broad, bearded, and always had a smile.  She missed his smile.

 

Charlie was just so tired of being alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well we didn't get to the bar scene this time, but next chapter we will. I though about including it anyway, but it would have almost doubled the length of this one. 
> 
> As always, any one reading this is fantastic and sexy. My current unedited word count is almost 100k and I'm so giddy with it ... well I just had to tell someone.


	13. Chapter 13

Garrus Vakarian walked out of the terminal.  Security was incredibly lax.  He was carrying a pistol in his pocket and a rifle in his bag and no one even stopped to check his papers.  Pathetic.  Garrus dropped his luggage off at his apartment.  His father had tried to give him an apartment, but he firmly turned it down.  Instead he took a dingy one room flat which was the best he could afford.

 

Garrus wasn’t sure what to do now as he had a couple of days before he started C-Sec training started.  He sent a message to Charlie, that girl always responded quickly and he was sure that she would want to do something.  Garrus really wished Lia was here.  She always knew something to do, but she was stuck on the Argo.  Cecilia had gotten an offer to work for an engineering firm on the Citadel and Garrus was really hoping she would take it.  Then they could get properly attached and she could take his colony markings.  His father wouldn’t approve, but that didn’t matter. 

_Why isn’t Charlie responding?_

 

If she was working then she would have responded immediately and if she wasn’t working well it was still fairly early, she should still be awake.  Garrus knew that that dingy asari club, Valhalla, was on Charlie’s normal route.  It seemed like as good a place as any to get a drink and they had a decent turian whiskey.

 

There was loud music coming from the club as he neared; that wasn’t particularly odd, what was odd was that it was not any kind of music he had heard before.  There was a male’s voice speaking quickly through the cacophony of sound and his translator helpfully informed him that it was English. 

 

When he walked into the bar, it was almost empty.  There were a few asari wandering around but they weren’t scantily clad.  A loud female voice drew his attention to the bar.  A woman was sitting on a bar stool and was practically fawning over a large bearded man. 

 

“Hey DJ play me some Jamie T!  I need some Sticks N’ Stones.” 

 

Garrus was not sure of a lot of things in that moment.  Who that man was, what a DJ was, and who Jamie T was; to name a few.  He was sure of two things though.  That was that the woman at the bar was Charlotte Nacht and she was incredibly drunk.  Garrus made his way over to the her.

 

“So this song is like really awesome, but you need to listen to the lyrics.  ‘It’s the only place but home I feel relaxed enough to crap.  I know it sounds crude, but there’s something in that.’  I love this British bastard.  I used to listen to him all the time.”

 

Garrus had never heard Charlie speak like this before.  It was like she was parodying her own voice.  Charlie always spoke with her hands, but right now it was ludicrous how much she was using them.  The way the man was leering at Charlie disgusted Garrus.  He knew it wasn’t his place to get involved, but surely she would thank him when she was sober.

 

He rested a hand on her shoulder.  “Charlie.”

 

“Oy gevalt, I swear to god if that is Pallin, I will rip off your talons and shove them so far up your cloaca they’ll be permanently lodged in your stomach.”

 

“The crazy bitch has got a mouth on her.”  The drunk was really pissing off Garrus.  He was going to do something about it when the bartender walked up to the man. 

 

“ **Leave**.”  Garrus had never in all of his years of the military heard so much force put into one word.  If that command had been directed at him, he would have been halfway to his apartment before he came to his senses.  The human male did not realize this though.

 

“No, I’m staying here.  This bitch wants some and I’m giving it to her.  Isn’t that right, sweetie?”

 

“What?”  Charlie was roused from her thoughts and was clearly disoriented.  “Oh yes beard man.  Yeah leave him alone Sharisse, I’m getting some of _that_ tonight.”

 

The asari clearly faltered during Charlie’s speech, but Garrus wasn’t exactly sure why.  He was sure that this man was leaving.  Now.

 

“I believe the lady said to leave.  I agree with her.  Go.”  Garrus let all of his disgust show in his dual tones.

 

The man still refused to leave and it took Garrus and the bartender forcibly evicting him.  The bartender then locked the doors behind him. 

 

“What’s going on?”  Garrus asked the asari, thoroughly confused. 

 

“Do you actually know her?”  The asari asked, ignoring the question.

 

“Charlie?  Yeah I know her.”

 

“Are you looking to fuck her?”

 

“What, no!” The idea was revolting even if Charlie had been sober, which she clearly was not.  “I have a mate.”

 

“Good.  If you want to know, ask her.  It’s not my story to tell.”

 

Garrus was still confused, but so far this was the only encounter he had had with Charlie that didn’t start with them attacking each other.  So he was cautious as approached the bar and took the seat recently vacated.

 

“Charlie, are you alright?”

 

Charlie who had been humming along with the song stopped and stared at Garrus.  “Oh it’s Garrus Vakarian, my favorite fictional character.”

 

“Why are you here?  What happened?”

 

“Well you would have to ask chief-pain-in-my-ass Pallin.  He lied and let that bitch go.  Said that he was going to keep her and punish her.  He didn’t.  Saw it on the tele.  Isn’t that right Sharisse?”

 

Garrus kept quiet as none of this still made any sense.

 

Charlie looked down into her glass and furrowed her face.  “Oh, that’s right _that_ hooker is dead.  How many does that make?  I can’t remember, it’s not like I can do anything about it.  I mean I tried, I really did.  I did everything.  Fucking everything.”

 

The bartender came over placed a hand on Charlie’s shoulder and gave her a light squeeze.  “There are kids that I can’t save.  I tried there too.  Do you remember, Nexxia?  Do you remember how I tried with them?   Couldn’t get them to stay in the home.  Then the hookers kept dying, I was going to save them.  I thought that this time it would be different.  I mean there are laws that protect them, right?  What they do is legal.”

 

Garrus nodded his head.

 

“I need a light.”

 

“What?”

 

In response, Charlie put a turian cigarette between her lips. 

 

“Those aren’t for humans.  I can get you a human one if you like.”  Nexxia was shaking her head, as if she had already had this conversation.

 

“Don’t have the farkakte allergy do I?  ‘Sides I like these better.  Give me some fire, fictional squad member.”

 

Garrus shook his head, reached over to Charlie and flipped the backwards cigarette and lit the proper end.  “Do you want to finish the story?”

 

Charlie frowned at him as she took a drag.  “Where was I?”

 

“You were telling me how you were going to save the prostitutes and how that was legal.”

 

“I think they prefer ‘hookers’, right Nexxia?”

 

Nexxia sat down next to Charlie and stole a drag off her cigarette.  “I wouldn’t know.  I’m just a bartender.”

 

Charlie laughed a bitter sound.  “Well Garrus Vakarian, turian sniper extraordinaire, I was going to save all of the asari hookers.  I found out who was killing them.  All I had to do was convince someone to talk.  It wasn’t even hard.  I just asked her.  Sharisse said yes, of course she did, she _trusted_ me.  Can you guess what happened next?  I don’t know if you saw the news, but it made all of the headlines. ‘Asari Matriarch, Pimpin’ and Killing Hookers’”

 

Garrus could visibly see the pain and guilt in Charlie’s every word and motion.  It was enough to make bile rise in his throat.  He wanted to maim every individual responsible for the way she was feeling.  He had never felt such a strong urge to protect someone before and he wasn’t sure why he was feeling it now.  He didn’t really know Charlie that well, but she always laughing and joking.  To see her use those same tactics in such a bitter and cruel way, felt fundamentally flawed and wrong. 

 

“One last thing had to happen first, though, and no one even cares about it.  That’s the kicker.  The last act of vengeance that bitch had in her, was to murder Sharisse.  Sweet Sharisse.  A victim of honor.  Oh wait, there is one more thing.  You see I had the evidence to convict, Matriarch Ryza.  Fucker Pallin promises me that he will make sure the bitch pays.  Says that he’ll personally make sure that she doesn’t get sent to Thessia.  That she’ll actually pay for her damn crimes.  I want you to guess what happened next.”

 

Garrus shook his head.

 

“I said I want you guess, Garrus.  Play the game, that’s all it is.” Charlie laughed the twisted sound again.

 

“She’s being sent back to Thessia.”

 

“Ding ding ding, we have winner folks.”

 

Charlie paused and tried to pour another shot from the bottle on the counter, but couldn’t quite figure out how to do that.  Nexxia helped her out and poured them both a drink. 

 

“Do you really think she needs more to drink?”  Garrus asked seriously.

 

Both women frowned at him and proceeded to knock back the liquor.

 

“I’m drinking for more than just Sharisse.”  Charlie lit another cigarette with the lighter Garrus had left on the counter.  When she realized that she now had two lit cigarettes she offered one of them to Nexxia, who turned it down.  Charlie then forced Garrus to take the other one, surprising even himself, he took it. 

 

“Like I was saying, I’m drinking for more souls than Sharisse.  Do you know how often people die around me?  I’d tell you to watch out, but you’re a fictional character so you don’t have to worry much.  So the last people to die around me, besides the nameless children and the hookers, was the entire colony of Mindoir.  Sometimes I try and remember all of their names, but I can’t quite get them all.  I could have saved them.  If I had ignored Ethan, I might have been able to fend off the attack with him.  I’m damn good.  I’m better now, maybe I wasn’t good enough then.  I don’t know.  I’d be dead anyways.  Before the Mindoir attack, there was Cody.  I definitely fucked up him.  I saw that thing in the water.  I knew it was there.  He didn’t and because I didn’t tell him; he died.  At least, then I got to shoot that fucker dead.”

 

“Charlie, stop.”

 

“No, I’m not done.  I have been to far too many funerals and I’m done, Garrus.  I’m done with being the survivor, I’m done with being the one who didn’t save everyone, the careless one, the failure.  Every single time, I just needed to try a little bit harder.  Push the rules a little bit further.  I could have stayed with Sharisse last night, but I went home to Grace instead.” 

 

“Charlie, stop.  This isn’t your fault.”

 

“Schtup ir.  What do you know?”

 

“I know that if there was anything you could have done you would have done it.  If you want to sit here and berate yourself then fine do it.  But you’re not helping anyone right now and I didn’t know Sharisse or Ethan or Cody, but they wouldn’t want you here doing this to yourself.”

 

Charlie sat there for a while, idly twirling the lit cigarette around her fingers. 

 

“I wasn’t supposed to come here and talk.”  She mumbled after a while.

 

“Why did you come here then?”

 

She looked at Garrus and huffed a laugh.  “I was going to get very drunk and break my four year dry spell.”

 

Garrus gave her a confused look and Nexxia said, “Holy shit, it’s been four years since you’ve gotten laid.”

 

“Yes, ma’am.  It might have been only three.  Either one is far too long.”

 

Garrus gave Nexxia a pointed questioning look.

 

“Me?  No, I know I don’t have the right equipment for Nacht.  If you know what I mean.”

 

Charlie let loose her first genuine peal of laughter Garrus had heard that night.  “Oh I’m sorry, Nexxia.  You’re very pretty, but I like … well … you know.”  She held two of her hands apart and gave Garrus a knowing look and waggled her eyebrows. 

 

Garrus chuckled along with her and spread her hands even farther apart.

 

“No. Fucking. Way.”  Charlie’s mouth hung open in shock.

 

“What?  That’s average for a turian of my height.”

 

“Lia’s a lucky lady, that's all I'm saying.  Also I did _not_ need to know that particular piece of information about all of the turian males I work with.”

 

All three of them laughed then and Charlie pulled out her omni-tool to pay.  Nexxia stopped her and shook her head.  “This one is on me, love.  Go home and get some rest.”

 

Charlie moved to stand up off of the stool and would have fallen to the ground if Nexxia and Garrus hadn’t been quick enough to catch her.  Her face contorted into a pained expression as she realized her predicament.

 

“Garrus, I’m kind of alone right now and if I had anyone else to call I would, but … can you help me home?”

 

Garrus wasn’t sure if he had ever heard a more ridiculous request.  Of course he was going to help her home.  He had originally gone looking for Charlie, leaving her alone at a bar was crazy.  He was going to say as much, but the tone of vulnerability struck him and instead he slipped her arm over his shoulder and walked her towards the door.  She was a lot more unsteady than he had previously thought.  Nexxia caught up with him. 

 

“I know she seems meek right now, but you should know that she still has a large knife at her back and I’m pretty sure she is still carrying a small pistol in her boot.  Here is her C-Sec issue.”  Nexxia was whispering and was clearly trying to avoid Charlie.

 

“She’s pretty drunk, I doubt she’s much of a threat.”

 

“I put nothing past her.  I saw her tackle a krogan to the ground once; the girl didn’t even use a weapon.  I mean he was a little drunk, but that just makes them meaner.”

 

Garrus gave her a disbelieving smirk, Nexxia raised her hands and nodded her head.  “Seriously.  He comes in all the time asking about her.”

 

Garrus just shook his head and continued to the door.  Before they were completely out, he heard Nexxia say behind him, “Take care of that girl, Vakarian.  If anything happens to her we will find you.”

 

He glanced behind him to see six asari watching them leave.

 

By the time they made it back to Charlie’s apartment building, she had passed out.  Garrus was stuck carrying her upstairs.  She was a little heavier than he thought she would be, but then again humans have those solid bones.  During the trip up the elevator she adjusted herself and put her arms around his neck, muttering something about someone named Justin. 

 

The elevator door opened to reveal a turian male with Odessa colony markings.  He was shorter than Garrus, but broader across the chest.  He was also growling at him.

 

“She is a highly respected C-Sec officer.  What are you doing with her?”  Protective anger was thrumming through the strange male’s subvocals.

 

“I’m putting her to bed.  Who are you?”

 

“I am Tevan Clodius and I am a friend.  I know she had hard day, but that does not excuse you taking advantage of her.”  Tevan moved as to take Charlie away from Garrus.

 

Garrus took a step backwards into the elevator.  “I don’t think you understand.  I am also her friend and that’s why I’m taking her to bed.  I don’t know you, so back off.”  Garrus heard the protection echoed in his own voice, but didn’t care. 

 

“What’s going on?”  A sleepy voice coming from his arms asked. 

 

“Garrus?  Oh shit, Tevan.  Can you put me down, Garrus?”  Charlie squirmed.

 

“Can you stand?”

 

“Guess we’ll find out.”  Charlie could stand, but barely; when she stumbled both Garrus and Tevan reached out to steady her.

 

“Look, Tevan, I don’t know what this looks like, but whatever that is … it isn’t that.”  Charlie made a face like she was trying to comprehend her own choice of words, then shook her head and continued.  “Garrus is just helping me home.  I’m not drunk … ok I’m a little drunk.  Don’t worry Grace isn’t home.  I left her with Mya.  Well Mya’s parents, that is.  I’m not a bad guardian.  She’s safe, I promise.”

 

Tevan put a hand on his face and Garrus was pretty sure he was attempting to hold in laughter.  “I know, I know.  You’re an excellent guardian.  Just go to bed.  I was just making sure that you were alright.”

 

“I’m fine.”  Charlie gave a helpful grin and waited for Tevan to go back to his apartment door, before turning back to Garrus.  “I can’t walk.  You need to carry me.”

 

Garrus gave her a mock groan and rolled his eyes.

 

“Hey I carried your drunken ass before and you’re a lot heavier than I am.”

 

Garrus carried Charlie to her room and put her in bed.  He still wasn’t sure exactly what was going on with the troubled woman, but he was sure that she was definitely not alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Charlie was listening to was Jamie T "Sticks N Stones"
> 
> Because when I'm depressed, I always listen to British white-boy hip hop. No, seriously ... I do. *hangs head*
> 
> Also in a unrelated note allow me to get a little giddy. People liked me? I shouldn't feel so happy about this, but I do. I definitely did not dance around my room like a child, because that would be ridiculous as a grown woman ... right? Yes, yes, of course it would. Heh, but aww. I like you too and thank you.


	14. Chapter 14

Charlie woke up four hours later at precisely 0600.  She lamented the fact that her internal clock would not take a morning off for a hangover.  Charlie checked the other side of the bed and confirmed that she was indeed alone.  She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but admitted to herself that it was probably for the best.  Making her way over to the bathroom for some medicine, she considered the past night.

 

The night had started with Charlie taking a cab to a part of the wards where no one knew her.  She had thought that she would just get drunk alone, meet a stranger, and get a hotel room.  The bar Charlie ended up in was not one that she really knew or remembered, but what had happened there?  She knew it was something bad.  _Shit._ Charlie froze while staring at her reflection.

_You remember now.  You saw that vid of Pallin sending Matriarch Ryza to Thessia._

_Did I punch a vid screen?_

 

Charlie looked down at her knuckles.  They were tender and feint white lines ran across them, but they were healed. 

_Someone patched me up?  Who?_

_Nexxia._

 

Charlie groaned at the fuzzy memory coming to the forefront of her mind.  She had indeed started by breaking the vid screen, which a couple of patrons were not happy about.  There were two turian males and a human man, Charlie couldn’t remember who started the fight, but she knew that she had gladly welcomed it.  She had held her own, but she was already too drunk at the time.  They were slowly closing in on her.

 

Charlie moved into the bedroom and quickly found her guns.  She sighed in relief when she saw they had not been fired.  _I wasn’t insane, at least._

 

She tried to remember more of the night, but could only get brief glimpses of a blue light pulling her from the bar fight and then Nexxia was there.  Charlie was fairly certain they ended up at Valhalla, but she definitely did not know how she ended up at home. 

 

The pain killers were starting to kick in and Charlie decided that the best thing for her was to get some food and water.  Maybe she would hit the gym later; it was her day with her trainer, Waterby.  Charlie changed out of her dirty clothes and put on a loose shirt and a pair of shorts.

 

There was a light coming from the kitchen and there were sounds of someone moving things around in the cupboard.  Charlie lamented leaving her weapons in the room, but it was too late to go back now.  Cautiously peering around the corner, she saw a very tall turian standing with his back to her.  Charlie was not a very stealthy person, but she tried to sneak up on the stranger.  The turian stopped and turned around and faced her before she had taken two steps.

 

“Garrus!  What the hell are you doing here?”

 

Garrus folded his arms and leaned casually against the counter.  “Please tell me that you weren’t trying to sneak up on me.  That was terrible.”

 

Charlie huffed at him.  “You didn’t answer my question.”

 

“I found you at Val Halla and I took you home.”

 

Charlie blanched.  She had not wanted anyone to see her weak like that.  “Oh … well I didn’t need the help.  I’m sure I was fine.”

 

Garrus had not been expecting Charlie’s undying gratitude for his aid, but he had at least expected something.  Definitely not denial of the incident.  “You were not fine.  You were drunk and angry.  I had to carry you home.”

 

Charlie gave him a dangerous warning look.  “Thank you for your help, I preferred to be left alone.  I didn’t want to be brought home in that condition.  If someone had seen me …”

 

Garrus quickly looked away from Charlie and stared at the blank portion of the wall. 

 

“Who saw me?”  Charlie was speaking in the low voice that was reserved for real anger.  If Charlie was screaming then it wasn’t cause to worry, but the quieter she got … the more danger you were in.

 

“A turian that you called Tevan.”

 

“Son of a bitch.”  Charlie heavily sat down on the counter behind her.

 

“I don’t think you have to worry about him.  He only seemed … concerned about you.”

 

“Oh concerned about me, was he?  He’s the father of Grace’s best friend and now he thinks that I’m an alcoholic cop who brings home strange turians!  Do you know how long it took for him to trust me?  I had to kick his ass on the mat before he even let Darius come over.”  Charlie was flustered and her migraine was threatening to blind her once more.

 

Garrus gave her an odd look out of the corner of his eye and looked like he was about to ask her something, but changed his mind and asked something else.  “You told me about what happened, last night.  If you need someone to talk to, Charlie, I’m here.”

 

Charlie scowled at him.  “If I told you all about it, then there is nothing left to say.  Leave me alone.  I don’t need someone to rescue me.”  She noted the look of hurt on Garrus’ face and shook her head. 

 

“I’m sorry, that was uncalled for.  I know you are just trying to help.” Charlie raised a hand to cover her eyes and took a breath.   “Let’s start over again.  What are you doing in my kitchen?”

 

Garrus gave a small shrug.  “I thought I’d see if there was something to eat.  I’ve got orientation in two hours and I thought I smelled some dextro food in here.”

 

Charlie forced a small smile to come to her face.  “Is that today, damn; I’m supposed to be there.  Scoot out of here and I’ll make you something to eat.”

 

“I thought you said you had a few days off.  Why would they want you to come in for orientation?”  Garrus asked as he traded places with Charlie.

 

Charlie turned and gave him an evil smirk.  “Let’s just say I have to be there.  I’m a … scare tactic for the new recruits.”

 

“What in the spirits does that mean?”

 

She tapped one finger on her chin, “Are you still one of the top hand-to-hand specialists?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Then you’ll find out.”

 

Garrus wasn’t sure what to make of this comment and so he opted for watching Charlie move around the kitchen cooking some kind of fish, which smelled amazing. 

 

“Why did you learn to cook dextro?”

 

Charlie missed the tone in Garrus’ voice.  “It helps to make friends with my turian neighbors.”

 

“Oh … like Tevan?”  Garrus’ voice was too innocent this time and Charlie caught it. 

 

“Garrus, he’s married!”

 

He threw his hands in the air and surrendered the point.  Garrus waited till Charlie had turned back to cooking before adding, “I didn’t hear you say no.”

 

Charlie threw some kind of human fruit at him and Garrus fell off the counter laughing.

 

* * *

 

 

Garrus had a nice morning with Charlie, though he noted that she never brought up the past night or the events leading up to it again.  She seemed content to pretend that they had never happened.  He didn’t bring them up either, but he made a mental note to keep an eye on her.  The food had been as delicious as it had smelled and Garrus was surprised Charlie had mastered cooking dextro.  Though, he thought as he reveled in the flavor, she doesn’t strike me as a person who does something half-way.

 

The rest of the day was spent sitting in boring lectures and he didn’t see Charlie again until that afternoon.  His orientation group, which consisted of fifteen turians, three asari, one salarian, and one human male, had just entered a large gymnasium and were told that they would be sparring with each other.

 

There were quite a few officers milling about the room and it appeared that some betting was being made on the outcomes.  Garrus glanced around for Charlie, but didn’t see her.  It was odd, because she had definitely said she would be here.  It wasn’t long before they were split into partners.

 

Garrus was first matched with a turian female.  She was good, quite good actually, but he was used to a much better partner in Cecilia and the female tapped out before she had landed more than a couple of blows.  The next couple of matches went about the same.  The opponents were solid fighters, but they used very predictable patterns.  They were also much older than Garrus.  It wasn’t like they were his father’s age, but they were all in their thirties and Garrus was only twenty and Garrus was very good.

 

After the last fight, which was surprisingly against the human male called Bailey, Garrus was feeling the glow of victory.  He liked being the best and he was definitely the best at this.  He wasn’t even feeling tired yet; he felt like he could go a few more rounds with a really good partner.  Again, he lamented Lia being so far away. 

 

“Well done.  We have a winner, Garrus Vakarian.  Now we have a treat for you boys.  Since you are the best among this lousy group of recruits, you get to fight _our_ reigning champion.  This is what it is like to face a human and let it be lesson for all of you.”  The older turian gave a glare to all of the recruits.

 

“Well that’s not fair, Dysus.  Are you calling me average?”  Garrus knew that voice and he smirked with confidence.  He could take Charlie.  It’s true that she managed to get the upper hand on him the one time that he had faced her, but she was in his world now.  On the sparring mat, he felt powerful and in invincible.

 

“Charlie.”  Garrus greeted her with a smile when she appeared.  She was wearing a large shirt and some tight black shorts.

 

“Officer Nacht, recruit.”  She gave him an arrogant smirk.  Charlie took off the loose shirt and threw it casually to the ground.  She was wearing just a small piece of tight fabric around her chest now.  Spirits, she looked so frail with so much skin showing.  Garrus almost averted his eyes to keep from seeing her exposed waist, but then he remembered that humans didn’t have the same modesty regarding it and all of the bits that they found indecent on a body were covered. 

 

“As I didn’t get a warm up round, is it ok if I stretch, Dysus?”

 

“I believe that’s fair, officer.”

 

The whole conversation had the feel of a practiced routine.  From Charlie’s innocent tone to Dysus’ begrudging reluctance to concede; Garrus had never heard Charlie use any tone even close to innocent.  He was beginning to feel like he was being played.  That feeling was confirmed when Charlie began her ‘stretches’.

 

There were mumbles from the entire group of recruits at her bending.  Spirits, the woman could bend over backwards, touch the floor, and then lift her body with only her arms.  Turians did not bend that way at all.  When Charlie did a full side split and started to stretch down to her feet; all of the recruits, except the three asari, took a step backwards and gasped.  The telling part was that none of the officers on the other side of the room looked impressed and instead they were chuckling and smiling at the recruit’s reactions.  Yes, Garrus decided, he was most definitely getting played. Charlie’s stretching was quickly over with and it appeared to have been carefully crafted to show off the most alien parts of her physiology.

 

Charlie finished and started to wrap her hands and feet with some white cloth.  Then she popped up off the ground and winked at him before taking a stance in front of Garrus.

 

“Don’t worry; I won’t embarrass you too much.”

 

“Officer Nacht, you’re here to do exactly that.”  Dysus countered.

 

“Oh yeah, sorry about that Garrus.” Then she had the teeth to wink at him again.

 

Garrus was properly riled up at the prospect of beating Charlie.  They had brought her out and paraded her about as if she was some kind of champion.  _Well that was about to change and it will just eat at her that I was the one to bring her down a peg._

 

Garrus sized her up as they did their slow circles around each other.  Charlie was definitely flexible, even more so than Lia, so he had to be wary of her getting too close.  She was probably also very fast, though there was no way she was as fast as he was.  Garrus didn’t know much about human physiques, but he knew that she was very tall for her species and had a high leg to torso ratio.  That meant that Charlie would focus on kicks more.  He knew from experience that she was strong, but turians were much stronger than humans and he doubted that Charlie would have the arm strength to really damage him.  Bailey hits had hurt, but his arm width was easily double that of Charlie’s.

 

Confident with his assessment of Charlie he started by sending a few warning jabs at her to test her speed.  She easily danced out of the way, but didn’t retaliate.  Garrus tried to hit her again, this time with more earnest, but again she just wasn’t there and he hit air.  She was toying with him, he could feel it.  _Fine, toy with this._   He quickly spun out with his right leg.  The move was supposed to hit her in the chest, but she must have anticipated it.  Because she ducked under his leg, hugged his ankle and threw a slammed a forearm behind his knee. 

 

On turians there is a special bundle of nerves that are located at the base of the leg spur.  They are what make spur injuries so painful.  However, if a blow is landed there it will lock up the leg and cause an inexperienced fighter to fall to the ground.  It’s a hard hit to make, because it requires a strike be made at a precise angle and turians, themselves, will usually not attack the bundle of nerves since it carries the same stigma as kneeing a human male in the groin. 

 

Garrus, however, was a skilled fighter and Lia loved to attack him there.  He was very used to dirty tactics.  He couldn’t prevent his leg from seizing up, but was able to use momentum and slam the leg backwards to knock Charlie off her feet.  Charlie bounced back up and gave him a congratulatory smile.  Garrus might have returned it, but his leg was in too much pain and he still had about thirty seconds left until he could bend the knee again.

 

Charlie attempted to move in close and take him off balance before his leg was functioning again.  Garrus knew that he couldn’t let her get in too close, so he swiped at her left side.  She danced away, like he knew she would, but he had his right arm was already moving and connected with her sternum. 

 

The playful look in Charlie’s eyes vanished and was replaced by a cold calm.  She let out a single gasp, but didn’t let the lack of air in her lungs stop her.  Charlie grabbed the offending wrist and twisted.  Garrus heard the snap and while he was working on a counter with his left hand he felt her leg connect with his right hip. 

 

The game they had been playing was done and Garrus’ face matched Charlie’s own.  He drew first blood with his talons, it was actually an accident, but she reciprocated with a grab of cowl and fist in his face.  His teeth were now cracked and bleeding.  His blue blood a match for Charlie’s own red.  This was a real fight now and neither opponent was used to losing.  Garrus couldn’t even remember the last time he had lost, basic training probably.  They circled each other, landing blows when they could.  Garrus could see the bruises starting to show on Charlie’s olive skin and he knew that he had a few ribs broken, as well as the fractured wrist. 

 

Garrus eventually made the mistake of letting Charlie in too close.  She ducked under his damaged right arm and landed the heaviest blow Garrus had felt, to the sensitive area on the side of his waist.  Charlie then ducked and swept his legs out from under him.  She was on top of him before he could hit the ground, spirits she was faster than she had any right to be.  Charlie was straddling his chest and he had no idea what her plan was.  He couldn’t get up with his legs like this, but he could still throw her.  He moved his arms up to do just that, but that seemed to be the wrong move because she was waiting for him. 

 

What happened next was a little too fast for Garrus to keep up with, mostly because it confused him thoroughly.  Charlie grabbed his undamaged left arm and somehow slipped her legs around his neck and moved herself to the ground so he couldn’t push her off.  Her powerful legs were threatening to choke him and he couldn’t get any leverage to move her off.

 

“I could break your neck right now.  Say it.”  Charlie was definitely out of breath and the words came out as a growl.

 

“No.”  Garrus was pissed and was considering how unsportsmanlike it would be to just shred her leg with his right talons.

 

Charlie must have heard his thoughts, because she said.  “Do it and I’ll break your other wrist.” 

 

She gave his hand a warning twist.  Garrus growled and eventually conceded the victory to Charlie.  After she let him go and they both got up, he looked over the injuries he had given her.  Large purple splotches were showing on her skin, her shins and forearms were scuffed and bleeding from where they had connected with his plates, her nose was broken and pouring blood, and there were a few places where his three talons had gashed her.  Garrus should really not have been proud by how bad she looked, but she was smiling and he found that he was too.

 

“How can you move like that?” 

 

“I’m naturally awesome, it’s a gift and a terrible burden.”  She grinned at his glare and put a bleeding hand to the side of her mouth as if she was telling him a secret.  “Alliance regulated gene mods.  My trainer suggested them and Admiral Hackett agreed to it.  I got strength and dexterity mods.  However, I am just naturally better than you.  I didn’t have them back on Mindoir.”

 

Garrus’ world finally made sense again.  He had seen enough humans in combat to know that they did not possess that level of strength.  However, he was also aware that genetic modification could only do so much and Charlie was definitely extremely gifted and dedicated to become such a combatant.  He could obviously never tell her this.

 

“Well that was impressive.”  Dysus came over and slapped Garrus on the back.  He couldn’t suppress the wince in time.

 

“Sorry for damaging your recruit and hopefully no one was fool enough to bet against me this time.”  She said the second part loudly with a meaningful look at the crowd of officers.  “I’ll be by to collect my winnings after a quick trip to the med bay.  I have to get all this blue blood off of me.”

 

Charlie winked at Garrus and offered him a shoulder to help him to the med bay, but he pushed her away and followed her limping.  Once they were away from the laughing crowd, he did accept her help and they half-carried each other to the doctor’s office.

 

“So, that _was_ a lot of fun.  Do it again sometime?”  Garrus couldn’t see her face, but the grin in her voice was evident.

 

“Definitely, next time it’s my turn to win though.”

 

Her response was her usual laughter and after a moment Garrus joined in. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so no one thinks that I have made Charlie into a superman ... er superwoman; she did not start out as a top hand-to-hand specialist. This is after a year of Ethan training and two years of Waterby training. She has many flaws still. Trust me. Also I hope you guys will like my Garrus, it's odd to write someone ten plus years from when you knew him. Also, yes, that is *that* Bailey.


	15. Chapter 15

 

Executor Pallin made Garrus Charlie’s new partner and she was thrilled.  Technically she was training him for the next six months as a cop, but she treated him like a full-fledged partner.  Garrus was incredibly smart and as dedicated as she was to actually helping the citizens, no matter their situation.  It felt like she finally had someone on her side.  They easily fell into a routine together. 

 

They sparred together multiple times a week and Garrus definitely made good on his threat to beat her.  He did so a few times, but Charlie was a quick study and after a while she got the upper hand on him.  Garrus was a significantly better shot than she was, though.  He never gave up on trying to teach her to use a sniper rifle, but Charlie was only ever ‘fair’ at the exercise. 

 

Garrus was initially better at programming than Charlie, but she forced him to teach her the skills she lacked.  In the end, Garrus had a more refined and elegant code, but Charlie could brute force her way through most security systems.  She found that she was still terrible with hardware, like she was back in the 21st century, but she could destroy software.  Garrus would typically scoff at her programming abilities, but was secretly in awe of the insidious little monsters that she would create. 

 

Grace loved Garrus.  She had given up on calling him Mr. Growlie, but occasionally Charlie would catch Garrus growling at the girl and she would laugh and call him the old nickname.  They worked well together and it never failed to shock Charlie when she would remember that she had first met him in a video game.  They were still constantly trying to one-up the other, but they fell into a natural rhythm.  They tended to complement each other very well.  Garrus could come up with tactics and plans, that Charlie was woefully ignorant with.  And Charlie could handle people and was a little better with direct confrontations. 

 

* * *

 

 

**October 2173**

 

“Wait, so how do you take down a krogan in hand-to-hand combat?”

 

Garrus smiled at Lia and gave Charlie a playful punch in the arm.  “Yeah, you keep dodging that question.  What did you do use you natural charm?”

 

Charlie held her face in mock offense at the comment.  “I can be very charming.  I just choose not to waste it on brutish oafs like yourself.”

 

“Come on, Char.  I promise your charm won’t go to waste on me.”  Lia batted her eyes at Charlie, who slid her arm around the turian and pulled her away from Garrus.

 

“Hey I only get to see her for another week.  Get your own woman.”  Garrus firmly pulled Lia back to his arms. 

 

“I’m so sorry, Lia.  You could do so much better.”

 

Lia hung her head at her “fate”.  “So.  Krogan.  Spill.”

 

“Right well the weakness to krogans is their insanely fast regeneration ability.”  Charlie paused with a twinkle in her eye, waiting for the inevitable waves of protest.  “Seriously, it is.  If, for instance, you shoot a krogan; then their regeneration ability will immediately close around the wound and heal it.  However, it won’t get rid of the projectile.  This won’t help you immediately though, because now you just have a pissed off krogan running at you.  However, there are ways to level the playing field.  I want to preface this by admitting that it is not easy.  Garrus let me use you as a practice dummy or, I guess I could just say, let me use you to practice on.”

 

Garrus gave her a disparaging glare and Lia giggled at his reaction.  Finally he moved to stand near Charlie. 

 

“Now if you put your hand in the armpit like this and rest your other hand on the front of the shoulder … here; you can force up and break the shoulder joint.”  She paused and gave Garrus an evil grin.  “Now I won’t show you that, but only because I did this to Garrus a couple months ago and he still hasn’t forgiven me.  Anyways, if you do it quickly to a krogan it will break.  You have to make sure it’s done properly though.  When it’s broken it leaves the arm unusable.”

 

“But they can still heal it.”  Lia interjected.

 

“Yes, their body will heal the damage, but it cannot put the limb back in place.  So the damage is gone and the arm will have to be rebroken and properly set to fix.  Now you can either repeat this process to the other side or you can go for my favorite move.”

 

Garrus groaned as he predicted her words.  “Dare I ask?”

 

“Well I only recommend this if one of the arms is taken care of.  Krogans have short legs and they can’t really kick well, so get in close and punch them in the throat.  I don’t know where it is exactly, but they have a bundle of nerves under their chin that will temporarily stun them.  Then take hold of the one good arm and get them on the ground, it’s important that they fall on to their backs.  On the way down with them position your knee to fall on their groin.  They really hate that.”

 

Garrus visibly winced and Lia gave him a strange look.  “It’s not like that would work on you.”

 

“No, but I can imagine the pain well enough.”

 

Charlie laughed at Garrus’ discomfort.  “Well that will buy you about a minute to grab whatever weapon you can find and finish the job.”

 

Lia gave Charlie a very skeptical look.  “This sounds very complicated.”

 

Charlie laughed and nodded her head.  “I’ve only done something similar twice before.  Best case scenario is to have a gun handy or preferably a large incendiary grenade.  Though taking them down in hand-to-hand like I said is the best method to use if you’re just trying to scare a group of krogans.  It’s apparently very … impressive to them.”

 

Garrus raised one eyeplate at Charlie, “So this is why that krogan, Kret, is always following you around?”

 

Charlie smirked and shrugged.  “Fastest way to a man’s heart is a knee to the groin?”

 

Lia put an arm around Charlie and said, “And you wonder why you are still single?”

 

“Such is life.”  Charlie said with a shrug.

 

They were having a lovely afternoon wandering about the Presidium.  Grace was running ahead of them arm in arm with Darius and Mya.  They had stopped to look at the krogan statue in the lake and that was what had prompted the previous conversation.  The group had been travelling around the market place with no particular destination planned, but Garrus was clearly nervous about something.  Charlie guessed that he was going to ask Cecilia to take his name, again.  The man just kept hounding the poor girl, Charlie was starting to feel bad for her. 

 

“Do you want to go out to dinner tonight?”  Garrus asked the two of them.

 

Charlie shrugged as she wasn’t sure if she was the recipient of the invitation.

 

“Is that a yes?”

 

“Are you really asking me out in front of your girlfriend?  I didn’t realize we were being so open with our obvious attraction.”  Charlie ran a hand lightly up Garrus’ forearm and waited for him to chicken out and pull it back.   She laughed triumphantly when he yielded. 

 

“If you two want to get a room …?”  Lia let the question hang as she was quite aware of the game and approved of Charlie’s attempts to make Garrus uncomfortable.  It had been a favorite game of hers for a while. 

 

Garrus moved so that Cecilia was in between him and Charlie.  “Seriously, stop it … both of you.  I can’t take either of you anywhere.”

 

“Aw, so no dinner then?”  Charlie pouted at Garrus.

 

Eventually the girls relented their torturous teasing of Garrus and they rounded up the children.  After leaving Mya and Darius with their respective parents, Charlie and Grace got dressed for a nice dinner out.  Grace wore a very pretty purple dress and looked very respectable for a ten year old.  Charlie managed to find a pair of black pants, which looked suspiciously like work pants, and wore a plain white shirt under a dark green suit jacket.   The jacket was important, because it hid the plethora of concealed weapons, which was why she did not let the salarian maître d take it when they arrived at the restaurant. 

 

“So can we know what this is all about now?”  Charlie bluntly questioned Garrus after everyone had ordered.

 

Garrus was clearly uncomfortable.  He was shifting in his chair, his mandibles were twitching, and he was rubbing the back of his neck.  Charlie chuckled under her breath.  _If I was dating him, I’d be scared he was breaking up with me.  We are in a public place where I couldn’t make a scene._

 

“They’re transferring me.”

 

“You _are_ breaking up with me.”  The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them and Lia and Grace laughed at her discomfort.  “I meant to say why transferring you?  We haven’t done anything to provoke Pallin, in a while.”

 

Garrus, who had not laughed with the others though he did raise his eyeplates, took a deep breath.  “It isn’t because of you, Charlotte.  It’s me.”

 

Charlie felt her jaw slacken with disbelief.  “Garrus Vakarian, you had better be fucking with me.  You did not just use the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ line.”

 

Garrus opened his mouth and then closed it again. 

 

Charlie gave a frustrated growl.  “It’s a human expression for a common way to break up with a girlfriend.  Normally this would be hilarious, but right now I am losing the best partner I’ve ever had.  So you better tell me this is a joke.”

 

The look Garrus gave Charlie threatened to break her heart.  “It’s not, I’m sorry.”

 

“We’ve only been together nine months.  Why are they doing this?”

 

“I’m getting promoted.”

 

Charlie looked like someone just punched her.  She had been with C-Sec for close to three years and the only time promotion had even been mentioned with her name attached, was in a joke.  She was never going to be a detective and she knew it.  Of course she knew that Garrus would be, he was intelligent, well-connected, and he was a turian, but Charlie had been desperately hoping that that wouldn’t happen for another year.  It wasn’t fair to him though.  Garrus was her best friend and even in her old life, she didn’t have many friends in that category.  Only Tim and Justin. 

 

She shook her head in an attempt to clear the anger from her mind.  “That’s a good thing, Garrus.  I’m proud of you.”  Garrus was still looking at her with that stupid heartbreaking face.  “So where are they putting you?”

 

“They’re putting me in Homocide; at least that’s what Executor Pallin told me.”

 

“Garrus, you will be an excellent detective.”  Charlie gave him a genuine smile. 

 

Garrus clenched his hands against the tabletop and looked at Charlie with the heartbreaking stare replaced with anger.  “You’ve been there more than twice as long as me.  I beg-- … I asked Pallin to promote you too.  That farkakte _bastard_ told me that that wasn’t possible and dared to suggest you weren’t ready and …”

 

Charlie reached across the table and placed a hand on Garrus’.  “I know and, as much as I loathe admitting it, I might not be ready.  You have five years of military experience and nine months of police work.  I have just barely three years of police work.  I don’t give you enough compliments, but you are a damn fine man and you do deserve this.”

 

“Charlotte, you are also a …”

 

Charlotte raised a hand to stop him.  “Garrus, I don’t want you to feel bad about me.  Tonight is your night and tonight we are going to raise our glasses to Junior Detective Vakarian.”

 

Garrus begrudgingly smiled and they all raised a glass of wine, well Grace raised a glass of juice, to toast him. 

 

The night was much nicer after that, mostly because Garrus finally relaxed.  Somewhere in the middle of dinner, Charlie was finally able to coax Garrus into their usual teasing banter.  Grace definitely helped with that endeavor.  She really was incredibly good at reading people’s moods, Charlie was almost jealous of her tact. 

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t warn you, but he made me promise not to.”  Cecilia whispered to Charlie, after Garrus had excused himself to the bathroom. 

 

“Oy, it’s fine.  A little warning would have been nice, but I can’t say I’m that surprised.  He’s a much better cop than I am.”  Charlie squinted at Garrus’ back as he disappeared through a door.  “If you ever tell him I said that, I will find you.”

 

“You’re secret is safe.  Garrus will never know that you actually have feelings and opinions.”

 

Grace giggled, “I’m pretty sure Garrus knows that you like him.”

 

“Honestly, if I didn’t know better … I would have kind of assumed you two were married.”  Lia chuckled at Charlie.

 

Charlie made a disgusted face.  “No … in fact hell no, he’s far too … angular.  Besides Garrus practically worships you.”

 

The smile left Cecilia’s face and she slackened her mandibles.  “That is actually a bit of a problem.”

 

Charlie was not expecting this reaction from Lia, so she just sat there looking at her.  Grace interrupted the quiet. 

 

“It’s not that he worships her, Charlie.”  Grace placed a hand on Charlie’s arm and smiled sadly.  “Garrus doesn’t feel in control of his life and he thinks of Lia as the one thing that he can choose for himself.  She is the only rebellion he has allowed himself.  Of course this doesn’t actually make him happy and it’s not fair to Lia.”

 

Both Lia and Charlie sat there staring at Grace.  Not because what she said was wrong, but because she was right.  Neither of the two women had really considered that side of Garrus before.  They were still stuck in that position when Garrus came back and took his seat.

 

“Alright who wants dessert?”  He looked at the three females and asked.  “What did I miss?”

 

“Nothing.”  All three females chorused. 

 

Garrus gave them a skeptical look, but he had spent enough time around the women to know when not to press the issue. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooh next chapter is a fun one. Sorry. I'm working on the fight sequence, but it's a little difficult to get just right.


	16. Chapter 16

**December 2174**

 

Charlie was walking her beat alone, again.  Rychelle was supposed to be with her, but the older officer had once again decided that she’d rather file paperwork back at the office.  This didn’t really bother Charlie, because, with Garrus no longer her partner, she would much rather be alone. 

 

It was a late shift that Charlie was walking.  Garrus was staying the night at her apartment to watch Grace.  As much as Charlie loathed losing her partner, she had to admit it was nice having someone to rely on to watch Grace when she worked these late shifts.  Garrus was so good with the girl too and he seemed to really like watching her.  Charlie wasn’t sure if she should be concerned about Grace, but the girl had been acting oddly.  She had always been calm, but now she was also quiet and Grace only talked if she had something productive to add to a conversation.  This was almost the exact opposite of Garrus and Charlie.  Charlie was not sure what she should do, but Grace was almost twelve and maybe she was just going through the awkward teenage years. 

 

Charlie considered this possibility and was reminiscing about her own violent and angry puberty, as she made her rounds.  It was a quiet night, just a few people milling about.  A few obvious drug deals wrapped up quickly as Charlie passed by.  She probably should have intervened, but it was very small time and Charlie knew from experience that wouldn’t be carrying enough product to put them away longer than a night.  So she kept an eye out for the stash house with full knowledge that she wouldn’t see one. 

 

Charlie was wearing her omni-glasses, like she always did during her rounds, which is why she saw it.  There was a problem with a lock on one of the shops.  It looked like it had been broken into, but had not set off an alarm.  Her glasses picked up the slight discrepancy in the locking program.  The shop was just a used omni-tool store and not a very good one either. 

 

Charlie called in the report of a possible robbery and let dispatch know that she was investigating the situation.  She pulled her Armax Brawler from its holster and moved into the building.

 

The shop was small, dark, and empty.  The showroom was dingy and the omni-tools were all locked up in cases.  Charlie had been expecting the glass cases to be broken and some sign of theft, but there was nothing.  She was about to move to the second level where she knew the stockroom was, but she saw an opening in the floor behind the counter.  Charlie quickly brought up the schematics of the building on her omni-tool.  There was not supposed to be a lower section to this building. 

 

Charlie quietly sent a follow-up of her status to the precinct and slowly descended the stairs.  At the bottom there was a narrow hall.  Staying as silent as possible, she turned on the situational awareness sensors on her glasses.  Over the years she had developed the VI to make continuous scans on for heat sensors, extraneous sounds, like gunfire and heat sinks reloading, and an advanced motion detector.  When the mode was activated, she would receive a silent display on the screen.  Charlie could then activate the sonar mode to partially see through walls.  The end result was a sort of heads up display.  It was not a perfect system, but it had proven to be extremely useful and Charlie was grateful to Cecelia for her help in developing it. 

 

At the end of the hall was a bend and her display informed her that there were a quiet conversation being held out of view.  The display had a read out of the conversation.

 

Salarian male 1: … Titus is a fool.

 

Turian male 1:  Agreed, but more importantly he is a late fool.

 

Salarian male 1:  Ten more minutes and then you are going to give him a visit.

 

Turian male 1:  I’m not your errand boy; you only pay me for protection.

 

Salarian male 1:  Damn it, if that shipment doesn’t get here, you’re not getting paid at all.

 

Turian male 1:  Fine.  Do you want this to be a friendly visit?

 

Salarian male 1:  If Titus is screwing me on a sand deal, then there should be nothing friendly about it.

 

Turian male 1:  Those are my favorite kind of visits. 

 

Charlie crept to the edge and chanced a peek of the speakers.  They were facing her direction, but only the salarian was looking down the hall.  She recognized him as the shop owner, V’hol Quenn.  She didn’t recognize the turian, but he had bright purple colony markings slashed vertically across his face.  They were both armed and Charlie did not like her chances against the two of them.  She had no idea when backup was going to arrive. 

 

Her screen informed her of movement in the ceiling.  There was no heat signatures coming from it, but there were vibrations in the metal.  Something was up there.  Charlie was about to activate the sonar device when a vent opened up and a slender figure fell from the ceiling.  The figure landed behind the V’hol and, with a quick motion, he snapped the salarian’s neck.  The turian who had been lounging in a chair swiftly stood up and opened fire on the intruder. 

 

Charlie was not sure who the new person was, but murder was still murder even if the victim was apparently a drug lord.  Charlie knew it was a bad idea, but she stepped out of from behind the wall leveled her pistol at the turian and loudly announced, “ **Citadel Security, drop your weapons.** ”

 

Neither man seemed to acknowledge her presence.  The murderer was using V’hol’s body as a shield.  His body glowed blue and he stretched an arm to the turian.  The turian was also briefly outlined in blue before he was thrown backwards.  Charlie leveled her pistol on the biotic intruder and repeated herself.

 

“ **C-Sec.  On the ground.  Now.** ”

 

The man stared at her and she sent a warning shot over his shoulder.  The man, who turned out to be a drell upon closer inspection, moved to lie down on the ground.  The turian got up at this point and opened fire on the drell.  Charlie, who had moved closer to the drell, was caught in the crossfire. 

 

Charlie shot the turian’s leg and said, “ **Drop your weapon.** ”

 

The turian stumbled to the ground and slid his assault rifle to Charlie’s feet.  She kicked the gun away from all three of them. 

 

“I’m a Spectre.”  The turian groaned in pain.

 

“You’re getting on the ground and putting your hands behind your head is what you are.”  Charlie scoffed.

 

“I’m Spectre Nihlus Kryik and you need to apprehend that drell assassin.”

 

“Shut the fuck up and put your hands behind your head.”

 

Charlie did a quick scan with her visor for additional firearms on the turian and found none.  The drell was still not showing up on heat sensor, which meant that he had a bio-mask turned on.  Charlie cautiously reached down with her cuffs in one hand and her pistol in the other. 

 

“Kalahira forgive me.”  She heard him whisper the words before he turned and grabbed her right wrist and twisted.  The pistol fell from her hand and she tried to grab him with her left hand.  He was fast though.  He moved like water and either he was blocking her attacks or he just wasn’t there when her arm or legs should have connected.  Charlie could barely keep up her own blocks.  She had a gun in her boot and a knife strapped at her back, but she couldn’t get to them.  The drell was too close and was far too fast for her to have a chance of reaching the weapons.

 

Charlie could not land a blow and she wasn’t able to deflect all of his attacks.  She did, however manage to grab his right wrist and she could feel a small blade concealed there.  The drell grabbed the wrist that was holding his and he twisted so her arm was held behind her back.  He had her pinned to the wall, but she had managed to get a loose hold on the blade.  Charlie didn’t have the leverage for a better attack, but she could drive the object into his forearm. 

 

The assassin didn’t yell, but his grip loosened enough so she could turn and plant the heel of her hand into his sternum.  He stumbled backwards gasping for air and Charlie took the opportunity to grab her combat knife.  She lunged for the assassin and heard the telling click of a rifle being unfolded.  The assassin heard it too and he redirected her movement and threw her at the turian who was aiming the gun. 

 

By the time she had untangled herself from the wounded turian, the assassin was gone.  Her sensors did not pick him either, but they weren’t even sure he was ever there. 

 

“We have to go.  Now.”  The turian grunted at her.

 

Charlie stood in front of the disarmed turian.  “You’re right we do have to go.  You are under arrest for trafficking red sand.”

 

“We don’t have time for this.  Look up my credentials in the system.”  He sat down heavily and started to peel off the portions of damaged armor to get to the leg wound. 

 

Charlie complied with the request, mostly because he was posing no threat.  The omni-glasses dutifully read out the information on Spectre Nihlus Kryik.  His facial tattoos were different than they were on record, but his voice print was an exact match. 

 

“So?  I take it by your silence that you believe me now?”  His voice was laced with pain as he applied the medi-gel.

 

“Spectre, you almost shot me.  I’m not apologizing for returning the favor.”

 

Nihlus looked up at her as he finished wrapping the wound in plastic.  “I didn’t ask you to apologize.  What I need from you is to accompany me to a warehouse in the Bachjaret Ward.”

 

“Why?  Why aren’t we going after that assassin?”

 

“I would love to hunt down and murder that damned drell, but my cover is about to be blown and I’m finishing this mission.”  Nihlus resealed his armor and stood up, though he had to lean on Charlie for support.

 

“I can have a swat team meet us there.”

 

“I’m not letting anymore dirty C-Sec fingers into this.”  Kryik scoffed at her.

 

Charlie stepped out from under his arm and pushed him into the wall.  “If you don’t want me here, fine I’ll leave.  I’d rather write up this report than assist a lawless Spectre bastard.”

 

“I told you I am commandeering you.  You don’t have a choice in this.  I’m a lawless Spectre bastard and you and I are going to take V’hol’s aircar and we are going to go kill Raym Yuri.”

 

Charlie really did not want to go with him, but curiosity, not a sense of doing the right thing, got the better of her.  “Fine, but we’re not killing him.  We are taking him into custody and making him stand trial.”

 

Nihlus let out a bitter chuckle as they walked up the stairs.  “Deal.  I’ll kill him after you get yourself shot trying to take him in gently.”

 

“I never said anything about gently.”

 

* * *

 

 

They made it to the aircar and were just lifting off when Charlie’s long awaited backup arrived. 

 

Charlie checked her weapons while Nihlus drove.  “So what’s the plan?”

 

“Kill him.”

 

Charlie glared over at the turian.  “That isn’t a plan, that’s a goal.  What is the layout of this warehouse?  How many guards are there?  How do you know Yuri is there?”

 

Nihlus cracked a grin.  “That is far too many questions.  As for the first two … I don’t know.  I do know he is there though.  I’ve been under cover for months and I am absolutely positive that a shipment of red sand came in tonight.  Raym Yuri is a paranoid man and he is always present during a deal.”

 

Charlie was silent for a moment considering this.  “As a cop, I know red sand is bad news.  But that doesn’t warrant a Spectre’s involvement or a blind plan of murder.  What did he really do?”

 

Nihlus didn’t answer for a long while and Charlie re-holstered her weapons.

 

“He has political ties.  Yuri is being funded and protected by someone with political clout.  I didn’t discover who that was, but if I can take him down, then this mission won’t be a complete wash.”

 

“Why don’t you know who it is?”

 

“Because I didn’t expect an assassin hit on my ‘boss’.  I also didn’t expect to find an annoying human cop, who won’t shut up and take orders.”

 

Charlie raised an eyebrow that he couldn’t see in the dark car.  “Well this mouthy cop is going to need to be better armed if the best plan the idiot Spectre has is ‘shoot everything’.”

 

Nihlus grinned in spite of himself.  “I have some extra weapons in the back.  What do you need?”

 

“A shotgun.”

 

“No rifle?”

 

Charlie rolled her eyes.  “Maybe an assault rifle as back up, but I’m not good with distance work.”

 

Nihlus chuckled darkly.  “Well this is going to be interesting, neither am I.”

 

“Fantastic.  By the way, I’m Charlie Nacht.”

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie tried not to be giddy at the equipment in the trunk of the car, but she failed miserably. 

 

“How did you get an Avalanche IX?  I didn’t think they were out yet.”  Charlie lovingly stroked the shotgun and then started messing with its computer.

 

“I’m a Spectre.  I’d have a HMWSG IIX here for you, but I was supposed to be undercover.  Are you sure that isn’t too big for you?”  Nihlus gave her a skeptical look.

 

Charlie scoffed at him and continued to work at the computer console.

 

“Wait, what are you doing?  You’re going to overheat it and I’m not cleaning up the pile of red goop that will be left of you.”  He tried to take the gun away from her, but she danced out of the way. 

 

“I’m almost done.  If you want me going in there, then I’m going to be prepared.”  Apparently successful in whatever she had been doing, she grinned and attached the shotgun to her right leg.  “If you keep making that face it’s going to stay that way.”  Charlie commented at Nihlus’ scowl.

 

“I could kill you right now and I wouldn’t even need my Spectre status to get away with it.  Anyone who has ever met you, would completely understand.”

 

Charlie smirked at the threat.  “Well you could try to kill me, but I’m the one with the shotgun that can rip a hole through your chest and set you on fire.”

 

“Oh, you modded it to deliver a carnage blast.  You could have just told me and I should probably check your work.”

 

“You never asked what I did and I don’t need you to check my work.  I’ve been doing this for quite a while now.  Also, why don’t you have better mods in here?  I’m not used to having an empty slot.”

 

“I did ask what you … fine forget it!”  Nihlus threw a hand up in exasperation.  “I’m sorry my _trunk_ isn’t up to your standards.”  He looked over her cloth uniform.  “You should, at least take a shield generator.  You’re practically naked.”

 

Charlie grinned and opened the top of her uniform to reveal the light armor skin suit underneath.  Then she activated her own shield generator and her tech armor.

 

Nihlus gave her a suspicious look at the display.  “What does a C-Sec cop need with that many shields and is that only light armor?”

 

Charlie shrugged and re-buttoned her top.  “Anything heavier than light armor slows me down.  I need to be able to move in a fight and heavy armor is far too bulky.  So I supplement that with some rather nice shields.  I have an ‘acquaintance’ in the military who showed me this tech armor.”

 

Actually Charlie had begged Lia to give her the tech armor and had spent months learning the ins and outs of it.  She had never had to use the pulse aspect in combat before, but she knew how it worked. 

 

“I was told that that armor was experimental and was being developed at a base on Menae.  I’m sure it wouldn’t be too difficult to find out who your friend is.  Selling government secrets is a fairly high offense.”

 

Charlie studied the turian’s blank face.  She couldn’t tell if he was being serious with the threat and if he was then that would go badly for Lia.  “Interesting.  The turians are developing this as well and on a base on Menae.  That seems like the kind of information that a human shouldn’t know.  Would that be the kind of ‘government secret’ you were telling me about?” 

 

Charlie was still not a great liar.  She couldn’t pretend that she liked the garish sweater that you got her or tell you that ‘no, of course I’m not a smoker’.  But she had developed a very good “cop” face.  Charlie had to use it every day.  She just hoped that Nihlus didn’t see through it.

 

“Fair enough.  Anyways we need to get moving.”  Either Nihlus didn’t actually care about the armor’s origins or he believed her.  Either way there was still a dangerous mission to embark on.

 

“Actually I have been working on getting those schematics.  If you want to just give me a moment …”  Charlie typed in a few commands to her omni-tool.

 

“You aren’t assigned to this ward.  Did you radio C-Sec?  I told you that I don’t want them to know we’re here.”

 

“No, I’m using your Spectre authority to gain access to Council records on the layout.  Every building has to submit yearly updated schematics.  Don’t worry I haven’t even touched C-Sec.”

 

“You’re impersonating a Spectre?  There’s a reason I didn’t do it myself.  They have people watching who accesses those files.”  His voice was heated and Charlie’s monitor informed her of the use of rage subvocals, not that she couldn’t figure that out by herself.

 

“You couldn’t have done this yourself.  I wrote a program while we were driving here.  It will impersonate you, but it will only do it well enough to gain access.  Anyone watching will know immediately that it is a fraud.  Also I have gained access to all of the schematics on this ward.  The program is going to look at each one for the same amount of time.  No observer is going to be able to recognize which one we are after.  So unless you picked up some tech skills that aren’t listed on your profile, I doubt you could have done this.”

 

Charlie pulled up the schematics and sent a copy to Nihlus’ omni-tool. 

 

“Should I be impressed or concerned?”  Nihlus muttered as he went over the layout.

 

Charlie gave him a cocky smirk and said, “You should be impressed.  I am a cop and I only use my powers for good.  And also for pissing people off.”

 

“Congratulations, you succeeded.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the rating, because it was pointed out to me that I have a foul mouth. So, yeah ... also violence and stuff. I don't really know if this is the appropriate rating. I'm not ERSB or anything. 
> 
> Also, aw yeah motherfucking Nihlus! Love that guy. I could fangirl over him all day, but Charlie won't let me so I'm sad.


	17. Chapter 17

Nihlus quickly formulated a plan of attack. They would enter an adjoining building and gain access to some keeper tunnels underneath the structure, and then they would make their way to the warehouse via the tunnels and come up from beneath. Charlie was still concerned at the fact that there were only two of them, but Nihlus insisted that he usually did this kind of thing alone and they would be fine. She was less than impressed by his bravado, but he was a Spectre and he was clearly very good.

The first half of the mission went well and was quiet. There were some guards in Blue Suns gear in the first building they entered, but Nihlus motioned her to stay back and he slipped on a stealth net and took care of them. Charlie tried to tell herself that they were criminals and that they would do the same thing to her if given the chance, but it was a hard sell. Every bone in her body wanted to take these men into custody and give them a fair trial. She had only shot eight people since joining C-Sec , including Nihlus. Charlie had only killed one person since that day on Mindoir. She did not relish in repeating the experience. Killing the batarians had never bothered her, not because they were aliens, but because they were actively attacking her and her colony. It was self-defense. This felt different. This was actively looking for trouble and ignoring the rules of law enforcement. As far as she was concerned, the Spectres were just legalized vigilantes.

Biting back her opinions, Charlie silently followed Nihlus. At the last door before they entered the warehouse, Nihlus held up a hand to stop her. 

“We’re probably going to need to be loud from this point on. But I want to try and prevent their knowledge of our attack for as long as possible. Yuri will attempt to get away as soon as he knows we’re here.”

“Understood.” Charlie switched her shotgun for her long combat knife and nodded the go ahead.

The door, which was more of a maintenance hatch, opened into a supply closet and Charlie was proud of not announcing their arrival by knocking into something. It’s not like she was clumsy, but well she could be a little clumsy sometimes. Honestly it was odd how someone with so much grace on a sparring mat could be a complete klutz at any other time.

Charlie put a hand on Nihlus before he could open the closet door. She motioned to him that there were two people in the next room and she pointed out their locations. He gave her a questioning look and she tapped the side of her visor. With a nod he told her to take the one on the right and he would go left.

The two Blue Sun mercenaries were in armor but were not wearing helmets. Charlie had no problems with slipping behind the right one, covering his mouth with one hand and slitting his throat with the other. As she laid him down on the ground, she could see his very young and very human face. It shook her more than it should have.

Charlie wiped her blade off on her pants and moved to Nihlus. They were in a large room in the basement of the warehouse. There were crates neatly stacked in high piles around them. Nihlus did a quick scan of the contents of one stack and informed her that it was just electronics. Charlie caught some heat on her sensors. She couldn’t tell how many people there were, because they were too clustered together. She motioned the information to Nihlus and pointed out the direction. 

They quietly ducked from stack to stack, swiftly making their way to the people. When Charlie could see what the heat sensors couldn’t tell her, she caught Nihlus’ arm and shook her head ‘no’. There were twenty nude women sitting at a long table. They were bagging individual doses of red sand. There were also a few incredibly bored looking guards lounging in chairs.

Nihlus was of the opinion that they should take out this potential threat and Charlie quietly and furiously argued that that would mean killing the women. She was not foolish enough to believe that these were innocent human women, but they were not armed and killing them would be slaughter. Besides there were only three guards and they were hardly a threat. 

Eventually Nihlus relented, but the look on his face was not a pleased expression. Charlie and Nihlus made their way around the people and reached the set of stairs that would take them to the main level. There were a couple of guards scattered between them and the stairs, but the duo quickly and quietly dealt with them.

At the top of the stairs, the door was open and they moved through it and ducked behind low wall. Charlie remotely closed the door and locked it with her own encryption.   
Unless the guards they left downstairs were techs, they were safe from them. 

Nihlus motioned to the group of men standing in the middle of the warehouse and whispered, “So are you going to give them the speech about how you’re C-Sec and they should come quietly?”

Charlie stole a peek at the group. There were fifteen fully armed and armored men standing in the center of the room. The leader was also wearing full armor, but it was elaborately designed and made him stand out. He was arguing with a krogan. Oh yes, there were also five krogan. Charlie couldn’t hear them and her program couldn’t pick out the words with all of the ambient noise around them, but she assumed that they were arguing over the shipment of barrels that was behind the krogans.

Charlie crouched back behind the wall and looked at Nihlus who said. “Yeah that’s what I thought. So just follow my lead.”

Charlie assumed that the Spectre had a brilliant plan of attack. She definitely did not have one; there were twenty men out there and only two of them. When Nihlus moved out further down the wall to get a better angle she was not expecting him to suddenly throw a grenade and open fire. So she was extremely surprised when that was exactly what he did.

Charlie really wanted to yell at him, but she was far too busy with the mercenaries quickly bearing down on them. The low wall they were behind ran the length of the room and had two entrances, Charlie was by one of them and Nihlus was by the other. It was, however, very low and it only came up to her mid-thigh. She sent two blasts of her shotgun at the closest Blue Suns mercenary and he fell to the ground with a hole where his chest should have been. This action informed the rest of the mercenaries of her presence and she was forced back behind cover to recharge her shields. 

Another human mercenary tried to rush her position, but her visor informed her of his position and she reached up, pulled him over the wall, and point-blank shot him with her shotgun. Charlie gave a quick look at Nihlus to make sure he was alright. He was finishing off one of the krogan mercenaries. Charlie calmed her frantic nerves and found her center. She was not used to firefights. She was a beat cop who occasionally had to take down drunken patrons. Dodging crossfire and killing mercenaries had put Charlie completely out of her element. However, she was very well trained and she just had to rely on that training. She took a deep, calming breath and when her shields were back up, Charlie opened fire.

The fight was brutal, but she was able to keep the rest of the men away from her position. She only used the Carnage mod twice, because every use would slightly damage the aim on the shotgun. Charlie was slowly picking off the Blue Suns and hadn’t had a single krogan focus on her, yet.

“Krogan charging!” 

Charlie heard Nihlus yell the words, but didn’t fully register them until she felt the assault rifle fire come pouring down her right side. Her shields were absorbing the damage and she turned to face the attacker. There was indeed a large krogan charging her and pouring fire in her direction as he ran. Charlie sent one regular shotgun blast into krogan and one Carnage modded shot as well. When the beast neared she tried to dodge him, but he grabbed her and rammed her into the back wall. The pain was incredible and the force caused her to drop the shotgun. The krogan was repeatedly bashing her body against the wall. He may have been severely damaged by her previous shots, but the blood rage was keeping him standing. 

In between the vicious slams into the wall, Charlie managed to activate the detonation feature of her tech armor. The orange blast sent the krogan staggering backwards and he dropped Charlie, who pulled her pistol and unloaded the gun into the injured mercenary. She could feel her broken ribs and hoped that there wasn’t internal damage. The wracking cough that tasted of blood informed her that there was.

Charlie grabbed her shotgun from the ground and was about to move back to her cover, but the section of wall was too badly damaged. Instead, while staying crouched, she moved closer to Nihlus’ position. 

“Good you’re still alive.” Nihlus grunted while dodging back into cover. “Can you tell me how many are left?”

Charlie scanned the room with her omni-glasses. There were four mercenaries left on the ground floor, one of which was a krogan, and she could see two more were moving up a set of back steps to an overhanging office. After relaying this information to Nihlus, she helped him quickly finish off the ground floor. It was much easier working closely with partner, especially since Charlie could pick out where the mercenaries were hiding. She did take a nasty wound to her leg and she lamented not having armor that could auto-dispense medi-gel. 

Up the stairs, they found Raym Yuri hiding in the small office. Charlie and Nihlus positioned themselves on either side of the door.  
“It’s over Yuri, come out and let the nice cop take you in.” Nihlus called out with a smirk at Charlie. She grimaced at him, partly because she was tired of the taunts and partly because she was in quite a bit of pain. 

“Fuck you!” was Yuri’s eloquent response.

Nihlus gave a nod to Charlie and the two of them leaned out of cover and into the room; Nihlus took a high standing position and Charlie went low.  
Charlie made short work of the first man, with two shots to the chest. She felt the force of something rock her backwards, but ignored the momentary distraction. Nihlus made even shorter work of Yuri who, despite wearing some beautiful armor was woefully inexperienced. 

Charlie was starting to feel lightheaded as she stumbled into the room and bent over Yuri’s body. She knew it was mostly due to the bleeding leg wound, but her torso felt on   
fire now as well. Apparently her earlier scuffle with the krogan had damaged her more than she realized. 

Nihlus had moved to the computer console on the desk and Charlie was connecting her omni-tool to Yuri’s own. She sat down on the ground next to him, because she was just so tired. The scan through his tool didn’t take long and there was not a lot of incriminating evidence on it. Mostly things they already knew. Details about the shipment, location of the warehouse, and … wait there was something new. Yuri had made a vid call to a C-Sec detective. Detective Cassius. 

Charlie tried to tell Nihlus this information, but the sound out of her mouth was a gurgling cough. She was having issues staying in a sitting position and felt her body fall backwards. Reality was starting to fade out on her and the pain was growing blessedly distant. She had to force her eyes open. She had to tell Nihlus about Cassius. Her eyes were pulling themselves shut and Charlie battled against the inevitable darkness. When she got them open again, Nihlus was crouched over her. He was saying something, but she wasn’t sure what it was. He was doing something to her chest, but that didn’t make sense because her injuries were internal. 

Charlie tried to say something or move to stop him, but she found that she could only barely move her hands. Instead she focused on remotely activating her omni-tool. It only took a few small hand signals to bring up the correct information on the device, but Nihlus wasn’t paying attention and the blackness was seeping back in. With a mighty effort, Charlie raised her left arm to her chest and saw Nihlus see the orange glowing message there. Charlie closed her eyes and let the darkness have her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long. Weekends are always rough on me. As always, anyone who is reading this is beautiful and sexy. :)


	18. Chapter 18

Awareness started to creep back to her.  She couldn’t feel anything, but she could form thoughts.  It was all so disorienting.  Thoughts of her apartment with Justin, no that wasn’t right she had an apartment with Grace.  Garrus was home with her.  Why was Garrus watching her?  That’s right, she had been at work.  It was very confusing.  Random images played through Charlie’s head and she found herself getting lost in the memories. 

 

Charlie was lost in the memory of getting coffee with Garrus one morning.  They were on a lunch break and were sitting outside a small café.  She was wearing the Star of David he had given her for Chanukah.  Charlie was teasing him about Cecilia and Garrus was teasing her back about Tevan.  It was so natural and friendly.  There was nothing particularly unique about this memory; it was just a normal day at work.  She had dozens of the exact same memory.

 

Charlie could almost smell the drink that Garrus always had, Chuile.  It smelled like an exotic chocolate.  She breathed in the aroma and thought she could taste the familiar smell.  There was the musky cinnamon smell of Garrus, he had started smoking Ignis with her and the two of them always smelled like the cigarettes.  There was a slight underlay of cedar, Garrus had always had that.  It had reminded Charlie of an old cedar box she had gotten while on vacation with her grandparents.  The lid had an etching of an eagle and it was quite pretty, but she never put anything in it.  It would just sit unused on her dresser and every once in a while she would open it and inhale the rich scent. 

 

There was another smell mixed in with the cinnamon, chocolate, and cedar.  There was a heady scent of berries and vanilla.  This one Charlie recognized immediately, that was Grace.  The girl had fallen in love with an asari made shampoo; Charlie had found it hilarious that a hairless species made shampoo.  But it was a very good brand and it smelled wonderful. 

 

Her breath hitched when Charlie went to take another deep inhale of the aromas.  Pain followed it.  That was new, she hadn’t felt pain before.  Charlie pushed the memories away and focused on her surroundings.  There were noises now, as well.  There was a feint beeping of electronics and a deep bass rumbling of a turian sleeping.

_Garrus, that man left the vid screen on and fell asleep on the couch again.  It’s like he doesn’t know how to go home.  I’m going to have to wake him up.  Perhaps a rude awakening with a pitcher of ice water would be appropriate.  I seem to recall that turians love the cold._

 

Charlie gave an internal chuckle at the plan and tried to open her eyes and roll out of bed.  She panicked when she found she couldn’t move.  Her eyes felt heavy, but she managed to crack them open.  Charlie peered up at the tiled ceiling.  This was not her apartment.  Charlie felt tears start to build as she nervously darted her eyes around the room. 

_What if I’m gone again?  What if somehow I’ve jumped somewhere else?  I can’t do it again, I can’t.  Leaving Justin alone was bad enough, I can’t leave Grace.  I can’t._

 

Charlie heard her voice make a squeak, which was supposed to sound like relief, when her eyes found Garrus.  He was sprawled out on a chair with his head thrown backwards. Grace was curled up in a chair next to him and had her legs draped in his lap.  Charlie managed to turn her head to the side to get a better look at them.  She was also rewarded with a better view of her room.  It was a hospital room.  She tried to remember why she was in a hospital. 

_Better ask Garrus.  He’ll know._

 

Charlie tried to work her mouth to form the question, but ended up giving herself a painful fit of coughing.  This did manage to wake Garrus up.  His head snapped forward and he stared at her.  They only held that pose for a minute before he was swiftly standing at the side of the bed.

 

“Charlotte.”  His voice still held the ragged quality of sleep.

_He called me Charlotte, something’s wrong._

_You are in a hospital, of course something’s wrong._

 

Charlie tried to make her mouth work again, but only managed to say, “Happened?”

 

Garrus’ eyes searched her face and then travelled down to her chest.  Charlie thought of several witty and sarcastic remarks to make about where he was looking, but lacked the ability to vocalize any of them.

 

“You were shot.”  Garrus finally said.

 

Charlie gave him a questioning look and hoped he would take her meaning.

 

Garrus looked back at the still sleeping Grace before speaking.  “For some reason, which no one will fully explain to me.”  His voice was heated and Charlie didn’t need a program to tell her that it was from rage.  “You were working with Spectre Kryik and the two of you got in a firefight with a drug lord.  Raym Yuri, if I’ve been informed correctly.  You were shot during the fight and Kryik dragged you back to Huerta and left you here.  The staff didn’t even know who you were, Charlotte, he took your omni-tool and weapons.  You weren’t even wearing your C-Sec jacket, so they didn’t know that you are a cop.  Spirits Charlotte, the injuries were very severe.  You had a gunshot wound to your right leg, four broken ribs, and massive internal bleeding.  The worst of it was the shotgun blast to your chest.  Your body was riddled with shrapnel and your entire front was pretty much missing.  I’m not sure how you survived long enough to get here.”

 

Garrus’ voice had run the gambit of rage and anger, but by the end it was shaking. 

 

“When you didn’t come home that night, I called C-Sec.  They said you went AWOL and left a crime scene and a dead body.  Pallin wasn’t sure if he should be worried about you or furious.  I was worried.”

 

Charlie managed to move her hand a bit and got a hold of one of Garrus’ talons.

 

“When we found you here … I thought you were going to die.  What happened?”

 

Charlie opened her mouth to tell him, but fell into a coughing fit again.  Garrus quickly sat her up and adjusted the bed into a reclined sitting position.  After he had also procured some water, she could speak.

 

“I’m sorry.”  Charlie rasped.  “I should have sent a message to you, but he was a Spectre and I thought I knew what I was doing.”

 

Garrus looked thoughtful and then gave her a stern look and said, “Just tell me what happened.”

 

So she told him everything.  The story took a while, but thankfully it was during a night cycle and Grace stayed asleep the entire time.  Garrus winced at the appropriate times during the part of her fight with the drell and looked concerned during the fight with the krogan.  When she told him about Detective Cassius’ involvement he just nodded his head knowingly.

 

“Tell me that she is in custody right now.”

 

Garrus winced.  “Actually she is also in the hospital.  Apparently she ‘resisted arrest’ when Kryik showed up at her door.”

 

A dark look crossed Charlie’s face.  “Good.”

 

“Really?  I thought you would be the one who found that to be a little extreme.”

 

Charlie couldn’t meet his eyes.  “I would bet money that she is responsible for Sharisse’s death.  If I had been the one to make the arrest … well I hope I would have stopped with just putting her in the hospital.”

 

Garrus gripped her hand that had left his talon.  “I know, I’m sorry.”

 

Charlie ignored the apology and asked.  “So, how long was I out?”

 

“Four days.”

 

Charlie opened her mouth in shock and looked at Grace.  “What are you two doing here?  _She_ should be in a real bed and _you’re_ supposed to be taking care of her.”

 

Garrus looked away and gave a small shrug.  “Grace didn’t want to leave and I couldn’t just leave her here alone.  So I stayed too.”

 

“Wait, you have been here the whole time?  She has school, Garrus, and you have work.  It’s not like I was going anywhere.”

 

“Really you weren’t going anywhere?  You could have died, Charlotte.  If I … if Grace wasn’t here for you … I … We would have …” There pain laced with the anger now and his chest was heaving.

 

“Ok, I’m sorry.  You’re right.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  I shouldn’t have gone in there alone with Kryik.”

 

“No, you shouldn’t have.  It was foolish.”

 

Charlie felt a wry grin creep on to her face.  “So you’re telling me that you wouldn’t have followed a _Spectre_?”

 

“No, I would have definitely followed him, but I’m an idiot.  You’re supposed to be the smart one, Charlotte.”

 

Charlie raised an eyebrow at the compliment.  Garrus didn’t sound like he was joking.

 

“That was a compliment.  Some people say thank you when they receive them.”

 

“I honestly didn’t know what the proper response was to a Vakarian compliment.”

 

Garrus chuckled.  “Don’t expect this to be a new development.  They will only occur during near death experiences.”

 

“I guess I’ll have to try this out more often.”

 

Garrus let go her hand and gave Charlie a stern look.

 

* * *

 

 

Grace smiled, but kept her eyes tightly closed.  She really wanted to give Char a hug, but she knew that both Garrus and Charlie needed this moment alone.  She had woken up at the same time as Garrus and had stayed quiet, because she wanted to hear the whole story.  Char would never tell her everything, so Grace had gotten very good at feigning sleep.

She listened to the adults continue to tease each other and couldn’t help but let the smile grow a little bit more.  Garrus had been on edge ever since Char had been injured.  Grace had been very concerned and upset as well, but Garrus had been yelling at everyone, the nurses and the doctors.  Whenever they would come in to check on Char, he would loudly demand an update on her condition.  When that turian with the white markings on his face came to visit, Grace thought Garrus was going to hit him.  He probably would have if she hadn’t been there.  Garrus had told the turian, Grace couldn’t remember his name, that he was going to quit his job if Char died.  Grace knew that Garrus didn’t mean the threat, the same way she knew that the other turian was very sad that Char was hurt.  Grace thought that he was a very nice man, but he was very stressed out about something and she didn’t know what.

It was really annoying to be able to tell how people were feeling, but not why.  Grace didn’t know how everyone else dealt with it.  Darius didn’t know what she was talking about, but Mya had known.  Maybe it was just a ‘girl thing’.  Char would know what I’m talking about, she thought. 

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie was very disappointed when she finally left Huerta.  Executor Pallin had given her a month’s worth of leave.  It wasn’t that she didn’t like being at home, it was just so boring.  Also her doctor had forbidden her to engage in any “strenuous activities”.  When she joked that it was a good thing she didn’t have a boyfriend, the doctor didn’t laugh.  Charlie hated it when people didn’t, at least, acknowledge her jokes.  It was insulting.

 

The worst part was that she was being “honored” with a reward for her bravery.  The reward was an Erantius Medal.  The Erantius was given to any cop shot in the line of duty and Charlie didn’t really care about it.  She had already been informed that this was not going to lead to a promotion and that was all she really cared about.  The ceremony was set for a week before her leave was over. 

 

Charlie heard the door open and then slam shut.  A quick glance at the clock informed her that school wasn’t out yet, so it must be Garrus. 

 

“I’m on the porch!”  She yelled. 

 

The porch was actually more of a very small glass room off of the living room.  It was just large enough for two chairs and a small table.  Charlie had been spending a lot of time out here lately, just watching the cars flying by and quietly playing music.  It had a lovely view of the city, because this high up you couldn’t see the streets.

 

Garrus huffed into the room, slammed the door, and fell into the chair.  “I thought the doctor told you not to smoke.”

 

Charlie looked at the light blue cigarette in between her fingers.  “Darling, doctors have been telling me the same thing for years.  Even in this future where a couple of treatments a year can prevent any damage.”  She gave Garrus a once over, “He should have told you to stop being so angry, it is murder on your blood pressure.”

 

Garrus gave her the growl that she had been fishing for.

 

She grinned triumphantly, “So tell me what’s wrong?”

 

Garrus looked away from her and lit his own cigarette.

 

“Fine, I suppose I’ll just have to guess.  Stop me when I get close.  Pallin’s pulling your Detective status, because he just found out that you’re really only five?  No?  Ok, you just found out that Chellick is going to be wearing the same dress as you at my award ceremony and now you’re going to have to find something different, but it’s not fair because the cut really made your cowl look so delicate?  No?  Alright, Cecilia finally came out of the closet to you and she told on our plans to run off together?”  Garrus turned and gave her a warning look.

 

“Really?  That one?  Well this makes my life so much better.  I really wasn’t sure how to tell you I …”

 

“I asked my father a few months ago if he would accept Lia into our clan and he said no.”  Garrus said the words quickly.

 

Charlie took a drag off the cigarette before responding.  “Why are you upset now though?”

 

“Because my family is coming to the Citadel and I can’t take Lia to see them.”

 

Charlie chose her words carefully.  “I thought that Lia hadn’t even said ‘yes’ yet and either way she isn’t even here right now.  Isn’t she still on Menae working at the station?”

 

“That’s not the point!”  Garrus was angry, not with her, but just angry in general.  Charlie knew from experience it was better to let him vent.  “I can’t even mention her to my parents without getting a lecture about ‘how she is bad for me’ and ‘I don’t have a future with her’.  Why can’t they just let me be happy?  Everything I have ever done was done only after getting permission from my father.  I can’t even choose a mate without him swooping down.  And now my mother is getting involved too?  I’m surprised they haven’t enlisted Solanna with this conspiracy to keep me from being happy.  What is wrong with Lia anyways?  She is a decorated member of the military and she is a brilliant engineer.  Spirits know that they keep her busy enough.  Lia is always being moved from one facility to the next and her security clearance probably rivals my father’s.  But she is barefaced.  Why does that even matter to them?  It’s so backwards and elitist to care about such a trivial detail.  Maybe it’s because she was raised by humans?”

 

Garrus threw his hands in the air with exasperation.

 

Charlie decided to try for a little humor, “Hey are humans really that bad?”

 

Garrus decided to take the question seriously, in his annoyance.  “According to my father, yes.  The only thing worse than coming home with a barefaced turian, would be to come home with a human.”

 

Charlie chuckled and lit another cigarette. 

 

Garrus stared at her like he had never seen her before and was wondering where she had come from.

 

“What?”  She asked around the cigarette between her lips.

 

“You’re a human.”

 

“That’s what they keep telling me, but I’m not sure I see it.”

 

“You’re also female.”

 

Her response was a roll of her eyes.

 

Garrus had a wild, mad grin plastered on his face.  “Would you be game for a little deception?”

 

After studying her cigarette, she responded.  “You know my price.”

 

“A very large and expensive meal will be provided for you and you will have your choice of liquor.”

 

“Excellent.  What are you thinking and should I be concerned?”

 

“I’m thinking that I take you to that dinner with my parents and introduce you as my girlfriend.  My father will hate you for being a human and my mother will hate you for your inability to provide me with children.”

 

Charlie scrunched up her face at the plan.  “For the record, I already have a child so technically if we got married you would have Grace too.”  She held up a finger to prevent his response.  “However, you seem to have forgotten an important fact.  I can’t act.”

 

Garrus was quiet for a moment, clearly thinking about this snafu in his otherwise well thought out plan.  He gave her a smirk and reached across to Charlie and lightly trailed a talon down her impassive face and across her collarbone.  “My dear,” He spoke in a soft, dark voice that was reserved solely for acts like these.  “We already play the game.  Just consider this the longest session so far.”

 

With a wide grin and a push of his hand away, she said.  “What if I make you crack?  I’m so much better at this than you are.  Oh, it would be glorious to break you in front of your parents.”

 

“First one to break buys the winner lunch for a month.”

 

Charlie clapped her hands with glee, this was going to be fun and there wasn’t really a downside to it.  “Can I be as obnoxious as possible?”

 

Garrus laughed loudly.  “The crazier you are the better this will be.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so yes ... there will be kind of a silly chapter next week. However, it's kind of important to the overall story ... and blah blah blah. The real reason is that I had the next chapter written in my head for months and I'm not cutting it just because it might be a little silly. I enjoyed writing it and I don't care. 
> 
> Actually I hope you will indulge me and you happen to be the kind of person who enjoys character interactions. If you find them interesting and perhaps find my version of humor funny ... then you might like the next chapter.


	19. Chapter 19

 

The dress was extremely uncomfortable.  It was absolutely gorgeous, but extremely uncomfortable.  Charlie slipped the heels on and decided that they were worse than the dress.  Trusting Nexxia and her merry band of call girls had been a terrible decision.  Charlie stumbled into the bathroom to put her makeup on.  She had been considering putting on a full face of the paint, but quickly decided that that was far too much work.  Instead she opted for a thin outline of black eyeliner and mascara, a light application of dark eye shadow, and just a hint of red to her lips.  Not enough makeup to stand out, but enough to accentuate her eyes and lips.  Charlie frowned at her nose and briefly wondered if chopping it off would actually make it better, but decided that that was also too much work.

 

Other than her poor many-times-over broken nose, she looked exquisite.  Her dress was a floor length gown with a slit on the right side that came up to her mid-thigh.  The top was a sleeveless half bodice that would have exposed her midriff, but had two wide strips that came off of the top, crossed, and folded into the top of the skirt.  The result was a considerable amount of exposed cleavage, a large portion of exposed back, and the sides of her tight waist were bare.  Charlie thought that she looked scandalous, but she supposed that that was the point.  The color was beautiful as well, the girls had picked it out, but Charlie readily approved.  It was gorgeous blue that complemented her eyes and brought out more of the blue than the grey. 

 

Charlie’s hair had been a difficult question to answer.  The length had gotten to the point where she would normally pull it back in a ponytail and pin the rest to her head.  However the girls had told her that this was unacceptable.  In the end, she spent a lot of time forcing the curls to behave and let them hang loosely around her face.  She only owned the one pair of earrings and even though no one would see them, she put on the pearls.  Charlie never took off the necklace Garrus had given her, so the six-pointed silver star already hung around her neck.

 

Charlie heard the front door open and she gave her reflection a saucy pose before making her way out of the room.

 

* * *

 

 

Garrus was extremely nervous.  His father, Antonius Vakarian, was not a fool.  If Charlie wasn’t convincing then this plan would go up in flames.  Which reminded him that he also needed to be convincing, damn the spirits.  Why did human females have to be so soft and unappealing?  Not that Charlie was particularly soft by human standards, but she still had those damnable breasts and they were so … soft and disgusting.

 

Garrus paced the living room in his suit.  It was his best suit and it was tailored to him exactly.  Thick and expensive black cloth with his Vakarian blue accents around the wide collar and the breast pocket.

 

He heard the sharp clicks of her heels before he saw Charlie.  When she came into view, he froze.

 

The sweeping lines of the dress accented her waist, as if it was framed by a picture.  Her chest looked larger than it normally did, but her collarbones were bare and he found his eyes tracing the lines of them.  The dress hinted at the outline of her ribs, but wickedly kept them hidden from view.  Charlie also seemed taller than she usually was, the heels must have given her at least four extra inches in height.

 

“So?”  He was asked, before Charlie did an awkward spin in a circle.  Spirits, even her back was exposed.

 

Charlie moved in front of him and coyly ran a hand up his chest.  Garrus looked in her face and took in the differences.  When did her eyes get to be so large?  He should have found them alien and disgusting, as turians did not possess such eyes.  Garrus couldn’t even remember any other humans with such eyes, maybe asari did. 

 

Charlie frowned at him and removed her trailing hand.  “If you’re not going to play, then it’s no fun at all.  Ready to go get me a free meal?  I’m starving.  Ugh, this dress is so uncomfortable.” 

 

She squirmed with the fabric, wrestling it back in place.  That coupled with the comment, snapped Garrus’ mind away from how she looked.  He chastised his stupid male brain for making him ever so briefly consider … no.  No.  This was Charlie and she was the absolute last female he should be objectifying.  Knowing her, she’d probably pull every single last tooth and clip his claws for even contemplating … no.  No.  That did not happen.  It did not.  Lia, think of Lia.  The thought of Lia make his heart ache briefly and he pushed the emotion down.  It’s just that stupid dress with that color.  Garrus stopped the train of thought and looked back at Charlie to confirm his suspicions.  Vakarian blue, why was she wearing his color? 

 

* * *

 

 

The trip to the restaurant was awkward.  Charlie had no idea why though.  Garrus almost seemed to be mad at her.  Had she broken some ancient turian taboo?  Charlie looked over her appearance, as far as she knew she was wearing an acceptable style of dress.  Chest aside, she had seen a few turian females wearing a similar style of gown.  True she had more waist showing than an older turian female would, but the younger ones would definitely wear this. 

 

When they arrived at the restaurant, Charlie was only too happy to get away from the interior of the car.  Garrus stepped out first and she was about to hop out when a turian hand reached through the door with the palm facing up.  Before she remembered that she was supposed to be playing a role, she scowled at the gesture.  Charlie took a deep breath and mentally put on the character that she had been crafting. 

_Just pretend that you like him._

_Well that won’t be hard, you do like him._

_True, but not like that … at all._

_Yes, well … how about you just tease him mercilessly and win that bet instead._

_That I can do.  Winning is my favorite thing._

 

Charlie accepted the hand and stepped out of the vehicle.  “Thank you, love.”  The raised eyeplate Garrus gave her let Charlie know that the low pitched, breathy voice was a good choice.

 

“You’re very welcome.”  Garrus’ tone was a deep rumble that gave her involuntary goose bumps.

_Damn, he’s playing too._

 

He offered her an arm, which she took, and they made their way into the restaurant.

 

Charlie had grown up in fairly well-off lifestyle; as such she had been to her fair share of fancy dinners.  This restaurant was something else entirely.  The décor was understated, yet lavish.  Elegance was too plain a word to describe the place.  It didn’t feel like the normal design Charlie had come to expect from this future she was living in.  The layout was intriguing.  The entire room was wrapped around an enviro-bubble that contained a beautiful greenhouse.  It was clear that it was possible to enter the greenhouse, but there were no benches inside.  Aside from that impressive centerpiece of the room, the rest of the décor was almost Spartan.  Colors were sparse, as was artwork, but the pieces that were present were large and impressive geometric shapes.  The mathematician that still lurked within Charlie wanted to study them. 

 

Charlie paused in front of one sculpture and slowly moved around it.  It appeared to be made out of brass and comprised of hundreds of complicated loops and bends, which formed a polyhedron.  Charlie tried to count the sides, but her eyes kept slipping away from the object and the design was purposefully confusing.  At first she thought that it was made of individual pieces, but the closer she stared the more it appeared to be just one piece.  The complexity of the sculpture was both chilling and thrilling her.

 

“Do you like it?”  Garrus’ tone was skeptical.

 

Charlie stared at him with poorly concealed astonishment.  “It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  I could stare at it for hours and still fail to grasp how it was made.”

 

“It is rare to find an alien who can appreciate turian art.”  An unfamiliar male voice said behind her.

 

“If this is a general example of turian art, then that is surprising indeed.  Could you tell me how it was made?”  Charlie didn’t turn to look at the owner of the voice; she simply assumed that it was the maitre d.  Besides her eyes wanted to trace the lines and seek out the mysteries of the piece.

 

“Original sculptures, like this one, are made from a single piece of metal that is painstakingly heated and bent using specialized tools.  The truly impressive part of a piece like this is that it must first be conceptualized.”

 

“No, though that is impressive, what is truly impressive is how the angle of the curves is in perfect symmetry.  I do not care how ‘specialized’ your equipment is, unless you are using some form of computer or fabrication device … this should either not be possible or the artist is a genius.”

 

She heard the voice chuckle.  “No such device was used, I assure you.  Reproductions are manufactured using a fabricator and some of the more complicated modern pieces are computer generated, but older pieces are hand wrought.”

 

“I was just introduced to this art style and even I think that that is slap in the face of the talent that can create such pieces.”

 

She heard Garrus clear his throat and placed a hand on the small of her back to get her attention.

 

“Charlotte this is my father, Antonius Vakarian, my mother, Oenone Vakarian, and my sister, Solanna Vakarian.  Family, this is Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht.”

 

Charlie blinked her eyes in surprise, but quickly gained control of herself again.  “A pleasure to meet you all, I apologize for my rudeness.”

 

“Not at all dear, Antony should have introduced himself immediately.  He’s so rude I don’t know why I put up him.”  Oenone companionably took Charlie’s arm and had such apleasant voice and manner that she was put immediately at ease.  The older woman was wearing a beautifully exotic black dress with a blue sash. 

 

“Son, you should have told me you were bringing a companion.”  Antonius addressed Garrus with a stern voice, but smiling face.  Charlie had to remind herself that this was the man that their deception was directed at, because at the moment she rather thought she liked him.

 

Garrus hand tightened on her waist and she let herself be pulled closer to him.  His talons tickled her bare flesh and he was warm.  Had he always radiated heat like this?  “I apologize, father.  Charlotte is my girlfriend and I thought it was time for her to meet the family.”

 

Solanna practically bounced over to Charlie and pulled her into a hug.  This was … odd.  She shot a glance over to Garrus and searched for explanation within his plates, but found none. 

 

“Oh, you are so pretty for a human!”  Solanna covered her mouth with a delicate hand.  “I’m sorry, that probably sounded so xenophobic.  I just meant that you already look lovely in our colors.”

 

Charlie froze, thankfully with the smile still attached to her face.  _Oy gevalt, I’m wearing his colors.  Why didn’t anyone tell me?  Nexxia.  That bitch.  She knew.  I’ll kill her; it’s the option I have left._

 

Aloud she said, “Oh well, I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate, but it is such a handsome shade of blue.”

 

She felt Garrus’ hand stiffen on her back.

 

“Nonsense, of course it’s appropriate.  It lets us know how serious you are about our Garrus.”  Oenone responded to her.

_Yes, I am definitely killing Nexxia._

 

Any further conversation was cut short by the maître d showing them to their table.

 

They were shown to a round table that seemed to give the illusion of being secluded, even though there were other tables in view.  This was cleverly accomplished with a privacy screen that did not block the view of the greenhouse.

 

Garrus pulled her chair out for her and she gave him a gentle stroke of the arm.  “Thank you, love.”

 

Garrus then sat on her left, Antonius to her right, Oenone sat next to her husband, and Solanna sat next to her brother.  It was a comfortable arrangement, except that Charlie was between the two men.

 

There were only two options on the levo menu, compared to the six on the dextro portion; but they both looked delicious.

 

“Do they have anything kosher for you, Charlotte?  I’m sorry I should have checked before we came.”  Charlie gave Garrus a genuine smile for remembering her eccentricities. 

 

“Yes, I’ll get the steak rare and it’ll be fine.”

 

After they had all placed their orders, Antonius turned to Charlie.  “So Charlotte, I believe I have recently heard the name of Nacht.  Where do you work?”

 

“Citadel Security, sir.”

 

“Really?”  Antonius spread a smile across his face and quirked an eyebrow at Garrus.  “Are you two partners?”

 

Charlie smiled and shook her head.  “No, I’m not a detective.  I’m just an officer.”

 

“Ah, a beat cop.  I started there, as well.  They have you on the Presidium.”

 

The talk of work and the amiable tone Antonius took, put Charlie at ease and she felt herself slipping into “Charlie” mode versus this “Charlotte” persona.

 

“Actually they didn’t keep me there very long.  I’ve been in lower Shalta ward for over three years now.”

 

“Really?  For _three_ years?  Why haven’t you made detective yet?”  Antonius seemed genuinely surprised.

 

“Well I’m sure the Executor would give you some reason that consisted of my unpreparedness for the position and my lack of responsibility.”

 

“That seems unlikely if you are the officer receiving the Erantius Medal.  I assume the actual reason is your race.”

 

Charlie took a delicious sip of wine.  “That would be the obvious answer.  Some of us can’t skate by on genetics alone.”  She poked Garrus in the side and then realized that shewas supposed to be attracted to him and turned the gesture into an awkward hug. 

 

Garrus gave her a falsely shocked expression and put his arm around her.  “You said you thought I was ready for the promotion.”

 

“Of course you were ready.”  She took another sip of wine.  “You were trained by the best.”

 

Antonius calmly watched the display and said, “You did work with my son, then?”

 

Garrus was tracing light circles on her shoulder.  Charlie was not about to lose the bet, so she moved a hand to his leg and simulated the motion against his inner thigh.  When Garrus tensed, she knew she had won this round.

 

“Yes, sir.  We were partners for about nine months and I take all the credit for his accomplishments.”

 

“So what are you winning the award for?”  Solanna asked with barely bottled enthusiasm.

 

“Um, I was shot.”  Charlie really didn’t want to discuss the incident.

 

Antonius, however, seemed to have different plans.  “From what I heard you were shot multiple times and barely made it to Huerta alive.  How does something like that happen to an average cop?”

 

Charlie’s hand gripped Garrus’ leg and it must have been painful, because he unbent her fingers from their clenched position.  “An unexpected mission gone wrong, I suppose.”

 

Oenone put a hand on her husband’s arm.  “I think that’s enough of an explanation, Antony.  Don’t you?”

 

Antonius let the issue go and the conversation shifted to Solanna’s upcoming boot camp.  When their dinners arrived Charlie realized that Garrus was still holding her hand under the table.  Which was odd, because no one could see the interaction; she removed her hand and Garrus removed his arm from around her.  Charlie wasn’t sure why she immediately missed the contact.  Probably because the restaurant was so cold, she reasoned.

 

“So, how do you find C-Sec?”  Antonius asked.

 

“Honestly?  I enjoy my work, but I find that many of the other officers are too attached to the laws of their individual systems.  We are on the Citadel and we should only uphold these laws.  For instance, prostitution is legal here.  Quite a few of the turian officers, no offense, have decided that they don’t care for that law and treat the prostitutes as second class citizens.  This is completely unacceptable.”

 

Antonius nodded, “I noticed that problem when I worked there, as well.  We are officers of the law, it’s not our job to second guess the law and decide who and who isn’t a criminal.  Personally I had more of a problem with the abhorrent way quarians were treated.”

 

“Oh do not get me started on that.  It’s disgusting.  Just because they are not a council species does not take away the basic rights they are owed as a sentient race.”

 

“Humans aren’t a council species either, Charlotte.”  Garrus added.

 

She gave him a small shoulder nudge.  “Exactly my point and we are treated with a lot more respect than the quarians.  And they never went to war with any of the other council species, like we did.”

 

There was a sharp intake of breath that came from both Garrus and Solanna as they stared warily at their father.

 

“That’s a good point.  We didn’t go to war with the quarians, though there is a problem with the geth.”  Antonius smirked at his children’s reactions.

 

“Oh, the geth.” Charlie scoffed, ignoring Garrus’ silent prompting to shut up.  “They haven’t been seen outside of quarian space in how many hundreds of years?  Besides is anyone even sure where quarian space is anymore?  The humans are seen as a much bigger threat and, if I’m being honest with myself, we probably should be perceived that way.”

 

“Really?”  Antonius set down his utensil and leaned back in his chair with interest.  “Why do you feel that way?”

 

“Well there was the Relay 314 incident, as turians love to call it, even though we had inferior firepower and were severely outnumbered we held our own.  Now we could sit here and talk about who was at fault for that war, but honestly it’s a pointless argument.  In the end, I think we can both agree that it was poorly handled on both sides and by the entire council.  So, because of that war the galaxy is aware of presence and our capacity as a war machine.  The Alliance is now in possession of even greater technology and we have a burgeoning biotics populace, something that every other species lacks except for the asari.”

 

“The turians have our own biotics, though.”  Antonius put in.

 

“That’s true you do, but even though we only started gaining biotics within the past two decades … our percentage is far greater than your own.  Actually, I lied for a second … there is another race that has our percentage of biotics.  The krogan and we all know how that ended.”

 

The conversation was getting a little heated now and both Charlie and Antonius were leaning across the table speaking with elevated voices.

 

“So you’re comparing humans with the krogans.  Are you trying to make a genophage connection?  That the only way the turian Hierarchy knows how to deal with a threat is to unleash a genetic weapon?”

 

“Oh the humans are not krogans, we are infinitely worse.  We are an excellent mix of combat prowess, intelligence, and adaptability.  I don’t even think the turians can rival that.”

 

“How can you say that?”  Antonius deep bass rumbled at her.  “Your species is so young compared to every other one we have encountered, except for maybe the drell.  Two hundred years ago you had just figured out that if you put enough explosives in a container and fire it off, it can leave the atmosphere.  A hundred years before that you didn’t even have a basic computer!”

 

“Exactly!”  Charlie’s eyes were feverish with joy at the argument.  It had been _years_ since she had her last good shouting match with an intelligent person.  “We are a young species and yet we have absorbed this extremely advanced technology and we understand it.  Worse than just understanding it, we are improving it.  The entire council has been in a technological rut for centuries.  You haven’t had any major breakthroughs, but the humans have.  The thing that you are missing that we have is wonder.  Wonder at this brand new galaxy we live in.  We want to see and understand it all, and then we are going to make it better.”

 

“So what should we do?  Humans are clearly a threat and they are grabbing power a lot more quickly than any other species has.  The turians considered making you a client race after the war, but the council wouldn’t let us.”

 

“It never would have worked.  Humans understand what slavery is …”

 

“It’s not slavery!”

 

“Oh, so having an entire sentient species do your bidding and put under your talon; without the possibility of escape … is _not_ slavery?”

 

“It’s a mutually beneficial partnership.”

 

“Oh, that’s why I’ve seen the beautiful volus embassy.  They definitely don’t share a dingy room with the elcor and they definitely have a seat on the council.  Because a ‘partnership’ implies that both members have an equal vote.”

 

“They are a free people.  They control our entire economy; they have as much leverage over us as we have over them.”

 

“That is just a recipe for disaster.  What happens if there is a market crash?  Those things happen, as I’m sure you are aware?”

 

“We haven’t had one of those in a hundred years, but if one was to happen we would handle it orderly … like we do everything.  Unlike the humans, I might add.”

 

“So you’re telling me that the Hierarchy is full of order?  That no ‘good’ turian is out for his own gain and glory?  That the laws are meant to be followed?”

 

Antonius gave her a wary look with the full knowledge that he was being baited.  “That is the ideal, yes.”

 

“Then explain to me why there are so many turian Spectres.”

 

Garrus who had put a hand on Charlie’s back again, clenched his fist.  Charlie turned back to look at him and he was slowly shaking his head as a warning.

 

“I … disagree with any kind of Spectre involvement.”  Antonius spoke through clenched teeth and Oenone placed a reassuring hand on her husband’s arm.

 

Garrus leaned forward this time.  “Really father, any kind of involvement?  Because I could sit here and list the thousands of people that have been saved by ‘Spectre involvement’?”

 

“They are an idealistic concept that should never have been put into practice!”

 

Nodding her head at Antonius, Charlie said.  “I agree.”

 

“What!”  Garrus turned to look at her as if she had shot him in the back.  “How can you say that?  You’ve seen what going through legal channels can get you.  People die waiting for the courts to make a decision.”

 

“Yes, it is a broken system isn’t it?  I didn’t say that our system is perfect, but are Spectres really the answer to it?  Obviously not since they exist and we still have these problems.”

 

Garrus withdrew his arm and leaned away from her, while Antonius leaned forward.

 

“Look I can give you a few good reasons why the spectre system is broken.  What am I, Garrus?”

 

“A cop.”

 

“Correct, and whom do I serve?”

 

“The laws?”

 

Antonius quietly said, “The people, son.”

 

“Correct, I serve the people.  I only care enough about the laws to let them tell me _how_ I’m allowed to serve the people.  The Spectres do not serve the people, hell they don’t even serve the laws.  They serve the Council and I would argue that they don’t even do that.”

 

“No, the Spectres help the people.  What about Spectre Alois on Thessia last year?”

 

“Good for her, she saved a couple hundred people.  That’s not my point.  Do either of you know how much Spectres get paid?”

 

Both men looked at each other and shook their heads.

 

“Interesting, I though you would know.  Spectres do not get paid, not even a cost covering stipend.  Now usually their government of origin will give them a ship or maybe they’ll even pay them, I don’t know.  My point is that Spectres are essentially mercenaries.  No, don’t give me that look Garrus.  I know you’ve seen the Spectre requisition depot at C-Sec.  Are they giving those weapons to them, no they are selling them.  So, the only way for a Spectre to make money is to do side jobs or hope that someone really appreciates their assistance and pays them.  So let’s say that I’m living in far flung colony and my daughter has been kidnapped.  Now the local police do not negotiate with terrorists and I am out of luck.  But wait there is a Spectre in town, surely he or she will help me right?”

 

She waited for Garrus to respond and when he refused, Charlie continued.  “So I’m too poor to pay him and he has no reason to help me other than out of the goodness of his heart.  Does that sound fair?  Is he serving the people?  Is he?  Because if he’s not serving the people and he’s definitely not serving the laws, then who is he serving?”

 

“I don’t know, but Spectres do help the people I’ve seen the reports.”

 

“I’ll admit they _can_ do very good work, but there is almost no oversight.  Only the council can revoke their status and we all know how quickly they work.  There is just so much room for corruption.  I imagine it would be extremely easy for a Spectre to do some dirty work, because they need the money.  I’m not saying they are all bad people, I’m saying the system is flawed.  Impossibly flawed.  Technically a Spectre could assassinate someone and not be tried for it.  How is there any justice in that?”

 

Garrus was quiet for a moment before answering.  “I thought that you’d understand the need for Spectres.  Clearly your mission didn’t go well, but if it wasn’t for Kryik then Yuri and Cassius would still be out there.”

 

“Nacht is a cop, Garrus.  She understands what’s wrong with the Spectres.”  His father quietly said.

 

“Garrus,” Charlie lowered her voice and placed a hand on the side of his face to make him look at her.  “I don’t want you to think that I believe you are a fool for believing in them.  I don’t think that, but a Spectre almost got me killed with his recklessness.  And because of his authority I went along with him.  True, in the end, we got Yuri.  We killed a lot of people along the way, they weren’t good people, but they were still sentient beings and that is not serving the people.  I don’t have an answer on how to fix the problem of Galactic security, but this isn’t it.  The answer isn’t to take a group of unpaid ‘lone gunmen’, throw them out into the galaxy, and tell them to fix it all by themselves.”

 

The table was quiet for a moment while the tempers cooled down and dessert was ordered.  Charlie was starting to feel just a bit tipsy, not enough to affect her judgment, but enough to loosen her up and maybe speak more than she should.  So when Antonius brought up the topic of religion, Charlie readily took the bait.  The conversation was getting deliciously heated again as Charlie and Antonius waged verbal war. 

 

“I’m just saying that traditions are important.  They let us know our roots and origins.  I don’t necessarily believe in a higher power, but I’m not going to forfeit the traditions of my forbearers just because of a simple ideological difference.”

 

“You think that not believing in the core of your religion still entitles you to that religion?  That is preposterous.”  Antonius countered.

 

“You are completely missing the point.  Judaism is both a religion and a heritage.  My mother was a Jew and her mother was a Jew and I am a Jew.”

 

“That’s insane.  If a turian doesn’t believe in spirits, then they don’t light a candle for them.  It’s not a tradition, it’s a belief.”

 

Charlie laughed at him, “If you saw how big our actual book of sacred texts was, you’d understand why 60% of Judaism is traditional.”

 

Antonius was no doubt about to further the argument, but Garrus cut in.  “Can you two stop fighting for ten minutes?  I’m sorry Charlotte, I shouldn’t have brought you.  I had no idea that my father would be so antagonistic towards you.”

 

Charlie waved her hand at Garrus to make him be quiet.  “I was in the middle of a thought and you made me forget it.  Now shush, we’re just having a friendly talk.  Right, Antonius?”

 

Antonius quickly dropped the mask of anger and smiled, “Oh yes, very friendly.  I’m so glad we got to meet you, Nacht.  You are the most fascinating human I’ve met.  Excellent choice, Garrus, I can only speak for myself, but I approve.”

 

Garrus gaped at his father and Charlie had to cover her mouth to prevent the laughter from bubbling through. 

 

Oenone beamed at Charlie and reached across the table to grab her hand.  “I love this girl.  She can put up with your father and carry her own.  Charlotte, dear, you have some very turian teeth and I’m so happy Garrus found you.”

 

Solanna was not to be left out.  “I like you too.  I would love to hear more stories about your career and maybe spar with you, since Garrus mentioned you are very good.”  She placed a hand next to her mouth and loudly whispered, “And you are so pretty.  Much prettier than the last girl.”

 

Garrus, who had been slowly working his mouth with little success, finally found his tongue at this remark.  “Cecilia is a turian, how can a _human_ be prettier than a _turian_!”

 

One hand was clearly not enough to keep from laughing, so Charlie placed another hand on her mouth.  Her shoulders were shaking under the monumental effort.

 

The entire family was quiet in the wake of this announcement and Charlie found an opening to win the bet.  She composed herself, then tucked under Garrus’ arm and leaned into his chest.  Running a hand across his chest and into his cowl, she cooed. “Darling, don’t upset.  You can take me home tonight and I’ll show you just how much better human females are over turians.”

 

That did it.  Garrus jumped back from her advances and stood up, knocking over his chair in the process. 

 

Charlie grinned broadly and in a sing-song voice she said, “I win.”

 

“So my son isn’t dating you?”  Oenone finally broke the tension.

 

“No, ma’am.  I apologize for the deception, but I am, or maybe was, a good friend of Garrus’.  I would love to do this again sometime.  I quite like all of you, as well.”

 

“You’re still with Commander Modius, then?”  Antonius asked his son with a feint growl lingering in the back of his voice.

 

“Yes father, I am.  I love her and you can’t stop me from bringing her into the family.”

 

“Actually I can, but that’s not the point.  You’ll learn it eventually.  Now if the drama is quite over I was having a conversation with Officer Nacht.”

 

The rest of the short evening was wonderful, according to Charlie.  She finished the religion debate with Antonius and then gave into Sol’s request for some stories.  After she managed to coax Garrus out of his sulk, even his night got better.  Eventually, it was time to leave and they said their goodbyes outside of the restaurant.

 

“I enjoyed meeting you, dear.  Even if you aren’t going to be a Vakarian, I would love to have you visit us on Palaven and please bring your little girl.”  Oenone gave Charlie a hug.

 

“That would be fantastic, though I might spend most of my time in an art gallery.”

 

Solanna looked between Garrus and Charlie and gave a smirk.  “We know that you aren’t dating now, you don’t have to have to keep pretending.”

 

Garrus pulled his arm back, which for some reason had found its way back to Charlie waist.  Charlie blushed and stepped a foot away from him.  Oenone and Antonius shared a small look that both Charlie and Garrus missed. 

 

When they were finally alone in the car, Charlie turned to Garrus.  “Garrus …”

 

“Yes Charlie, you win.  Are you happy?”

 

Charlie took off one her heels and threw it across the car at him.  “No, I’m not happy.  You cut me off.”

 

“Sorry, what were going to say?”  He studied the heel with feigned disgust.

 

“I’m sorry that I am such wonderful person, that your parents loved me and want you to marry me.”  Charlie tried to look wretched about it, but failed miserably.

 

Garrus threw the shoe back at her.  “You’re not even a little bit sorry.”

 

“Okay, okay… I am a little sorry though.  I wish I could tell you why they don’t like Lia.”

 

He was silent for a while before whispering, “I think they liked her in the beginning, but … for some reason … they keep pushing me away from her.”

 

“Why does it matter what they think?”

 

Garrus stared blankly at her like she was an idiot.  “Because I can’t make her part of the Vakarian family without their approval.”

 

“So?”

 

“That matters … it means if we have kids … they won’t be Vakarians.”

 

“Why would that matter, you would be happy.”

 

Garrus was quiet for too long and Charlie continued.  “Would you like to hear a story?”  He glared at her.  “It doesn’t matter, you are getting one anyways.  When my grandparents were very young there was war going on.  My grandfather’s country was committing genocide against my bubbe’s people.”

 

Garrus gave Charlie a sharp look, “What war was that?”

 

Charlie dismissed the question with a kick at his arm.  “Doesn’t matter, I’m telling a story.  Now shush.  Anyways, neither of them was living in my grandfather’s country so my bubbe wasn’t in any danger.  However, she did have family that was being tortured there and he had family that was doing the torturing.  They met in New York City, my grandfather was from a wealthy family and my bubbe was from a poor family.  They were pure opposites.  They even looked completely different.  The point is that they met and neither of their families approved of the match.  My bubbe’s family called her a traitor and my grandfather’s family called him … eh … there were some truly terrible things said.  It wasn’t just the families either.  There was quite a bit of anti-Semitism in New York, at the time, and of course they didn’t like the Germans either.  So everyone was against them.  They got married though.  My grandfather was denounced by his wealthy family and my bubbe was forbidden to return home.  But they were happy, they were poor and had to deal with some racism, but they were so happy.”

 

“Did your grandfather serve in the war?”

 

Charlie scoffed, “Sort of.  Because he had close family serving on the other side, they kept him in the country.  He ended up watching the shore for U-... nevermind … uh they kept him away from seeing battle.  Anyways, he was cutting a tree with a fellow soldier.  They were using one of those really long two-person saws … oh never mind …” The story was quickly getting difficult to tell and still keep vague. “The other soldier let go of his end and the saw went through my grandfather’s knees.  He kept the legs, but he couldn’t serve anymore.”

 

“I don’t understand.  Why didn’t they just fix his legs?”

 

“This was before they could?  Anyhow, the point was that if you really wanted to be with Cecilia, then nothing would get in your way.  So why aren’t you with her?”

 

“I think she’s leaving me.”  Garrus’ voice was so quiet that Charlie could barely hear him.

 

“What?” Charlie shook her head.  “I mean, why … why do you think that?”

 

Garrus buried his face in his hands and keened.  “Because she told me.”

 

“I don’t understand, why did we do all of this?”  Charlie hated that keening sound.  She had heard it before, but never from Garrus.  She was holding onto the seat cushion to prevent herself from comforting him.

 

“She only told me yesterday and I thought if I could convince my parents to accept her, then I could get her … back.”

 

“That bitch broke up with you, because you couldn’t give her your name?”  Charlie’s opinion of Lia was dropping so quickly that she could barely believe that she had even liked her.  The thought of flying to Menae, storming the top secret government facility, and teaching her a lesson; briefly flashed through her mind.  Charlie shook her head to clear it of the ludicrous plan, which would never work.  They probably had guards or something.

 

Garrus seemed to study the rage flicking across Charlie’s face and she felt like he could read the stupid plan forming there.

 

“No, she didn’t say that.  She didn’t really give me a reason.  She just said that we live too far apart and that she didn’t want to live on the Citadel.  I told her that I would move and I didn’t care where I lived.  Cecil- … she said that I would care at some point and this was … for the best.”

 

Charlie wasn’t sure what to say to that.  On the one hand, she had a sneaking suspicion that Lia was right.  Garrus would care about losing his career.  On the other hand, he was so sad right now that it was threatening to pull her heart from her chest.  Her hands twitched with uncertainty.  Should she comfort him?  Tell him her actual opinion on Lia’s decision?  Not do anything?

 

Garrus’ piercing keening made up her mind and Charlie found herself hugging the large sharply pointed man for the rest of the trip to her apartment.  She practically begged him to come upstairs and told him that he should not be alone.  Eventually she tricked him into walking her to the door of the complex and Charlie paid the taxi which left Garrus stranded there.  He begrudgingly spent the night at her place and when Grace came home the next morning she found them passed out on the couch. 

 

There were empty bottles and empty packs of Ignis strewn about the place.  The two of them had fallen asleep in extremely uncomfortable positions, with Charlie’s barefoot stuck in Garrus’ face.  Grace wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but it wasn’t too hard to figure out.  Cecilia must have finally broken up with Garrus and Charlie had comforted him the only way she knew how, with alcohol and bad movies.  Grace smiled at the two.  Garrus would be alright.  She didn’t know how she knew, but she did.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, that was a huge chapter. I tried to break it up into smaller bits, but I just wasn't sure how. So you guys get the whole thing. As always, I would love some feedback as I'm really unsure how this is being perceived by readers. Even negative comments would be helpful. Thank you for reading and the next chapter is positively teeming with plot. I promise. No, really ... 
> 
> By the way, the story of Charlie's grandparents is partially my own mixed with a few similar stories of some friends. My own grandmother's family loooved my grandfather. I believe the words "Oy, he's so tall and handsome. You'll have such beautiful babies. This is going to be a proper Jewish wedding, though right?" were uttered by my great-grandmother. Honestly, my family's so incredibly Jewish that if I wrote Charlie from actual personal experience, she would be a racist caricature. Such is life. Nothing works out perfectly, especially since none of us are tall or beautiful.


	20. Chapter 20

**September 2175**

“Char?  Can I ask you a question?” 

 

“You just did, Grace.”  Charlie smirked at the dishes as she cleaned dinner off of them.

 

Grace walked into the kitchen and put her hands on her hips.  She looked decidedly unimpressed at Charlie’s attempt at humor. 

 

“Okay, fine … What is it?”

 

Grace twiddled her fingers together.  “Why haven’t you mentioned my Bat Mitzvah?”

 

Charlie almost dropped the dish, but caught it midair.  “Uh … how do you know about that?”

 

Grace pursed her lips together and did a fairly good impression of Charlie’s “duh” face.  “I did some research.”

 

“Why?”  Charlie had never even considered the possibility.

 

“Well we already do all of the Jewish customs already.  We keep kosher, I know you said I don’t have to, but I do anyways.  We keep the high holidays; Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.  We even have Chanukah, after I asked about Christmas that one year.  Wait … I’m forgetting some … Oh!  We also keep Passover and Purim.  So why are you surprised that I looked up Judaism on the extranet?  I did that years ago.”

 

Charlie raised her hands, “Okay, okay I surrender you win.”

 

“So can I have a Bat Miztvah?”

 

Charlie ran her hands through her hair.  “Yeah, I guess so.  You understand what it means right?”

 

“It’s what you do when you’re thirteen.”

 

“Sort of.  It means that you are announcing that you are a woman and that you are now mature enough to answer for your actions.  In the old days, this had legal weight.  You could own land or get married or answer for you crimes.  These days, well … it doesn’t mean that.  It mostly matters to the family and if we had a Synagogue or a Temple on this goyish station, then it would matter to them.”

 

Charlie paused and looked seriously at Grace.  “Love, this isn’t the tradition of your parents.  This is my tradition of my people.  If you want to do this, then … it means you are joining my family too.  This isn’t something you do, because it’s ‘what you do when you turn thirteen’.  If you really want to do this and formally join my religion, then I will not stop you.”

 

Grace looked down at her feet before turning back up to Charlie and taking her hand.  “I understand, Char.  I want to do this, because I like your traditions.  They’re different and sometimes don’t make sense, but it makes us a family.”

 

Charlie did not cry, but she considered it briefly.  Grace was growing up incredibly fast.  She was still so tiny in stature, but she had started to develop as a woman.  That was an awkward trip to the store to get a training bra, mostly because Charlie had no idea what to get.  Her own puberty had felt like it happened overnight.  She went to bed a short flat-chested girl and woke up with full woman breasts and giant feet.  Her height didn’t come till the next year.

 

“Well, dear, we do have a small problem.  Typically a Bat Mitzvah is just a giant party with a reading of the Torah.  We can do the party, not a problem, but we don’t have a Jewish population here and I wouldn’t even know where to find one.”

 

“Why can’t I just read the Torah off the extranet?”

 

Charlie winced, it was an honest question, but she wasn’t sure how to answer it.  “Well … uh … you don’t do that.  We need a temple.”

 

Grace frowned with thought.  “What about Earth?”

 

Charlie blinked in surprise that was a really good point.  What about Earth?  She had never even looked into going back to Earth.  There still had to be practicing Jews on Earth, right?

 

“I don’t know.  Maybe.  I’ll look into it for you.  If we do it on Earth none of your friends will be able to make it, though.”

 

Grace shrugged, “We could have the party here and have the service on Earth.”

 

“You do have all of the answers.  Why do I feel like you had this conversation planned before you walked over here?”

 

Grace gave her a wicked grin and skipped back to her bedroom.

 

Charlie finished the dishes while muttering something under breath about getting played by a child.  When she was finished with the chore she went over to the extranet console and started to look for practicing Jews on Earth.  It was surprisingly helpful.  Judaism was still actively practiced on Earth, but there were fewer synagogues and more temples than she remembered.  That made sense, because it definitely felt like there were more Reform than Orthodox Jews when Charlie was last there.  When she visited the individual sites of the temples, she did not like them.  They were almost too Reform for her taste.  There were so few of them too.  It was actually very sad for her, to look at the dying embers of her religion.  Charlie was struck with homesickness and longed for the late night conversations with Rabbi Applebaum.  Not that she believed in God, but knowing that so few others did too; well it broke her heart.  Just because she had stepped away from the belief didn’t mean that everyone else should too. 

 

Charlie was about to call one of the temples when she was struck with the sensation of being very tired.  She yawned and tried to clear her head.  It was only 1421 hours, she shouldn’t feel this exhausted.  She did have a very busy week though. 

 

“Char, can you call Darius and tell him not to come over?”  The voice cut through the haze of sleep that was threatening to take Charlie. 

 

“What … why?”

 

“I think I’m going to take a nap.”  Grace moved to sit on the couch. 

 

Charlie willed her eyes to stay open and flicked on her omni-glasses as she moved over to Grace.

 

“No, honey you have to stay awake.  We … need to … get out of here.”  Charlie knew that she should be panicking right now.  She tried to will that emotion into existence, but it was so difficult.

 

Grace was already asleep on the couch though and Charlie’s legs gave out on her as she walked.  She fell heavily on the ground and the last thing she did before passing out was to call Garrus.  Charlie couldn’t remember to actually talk, but she called him.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Garrus had slowly put his life back together after Lia left him.  He was actually upset that he didn’t pine over her longer.  Life threatened to leave him behind if he didn’t move on and after a little bit of coaxing, he complied.  Actually, if he was being honest, everything was going great.  He had solved two important murders and had arrested the persons responsible for them.  Garrus moved into a larger apartment, which was a massive improvement to his old one-room flat.  Of course Charlie had yet to see it … Charlie.  He did not want to think about her.

 

Life was going so well and seemed to mock him that his relationship with Charlie was going so poorly.  It was all because of that one stupid night.  Garrus could not rememberwhat happened.  They had watched _Fleet and Flotilla_ , which Charlie had rudely giggled at the entire way through.  She claimed to love his singing, though Garrus had had the distinct impression he was being mocked.  After he had tackled her to his side, to keep her from pantomiming the dancing, they had stayed that way till the end of the movie.  Spirits, they had drunk so much liquor.  Garrus couldn’t clearly remember the movie ending, but she had been soft and yet so firm … no.  No.  Not thinking about that again. 

 

When he woke up the next morning the first thing he realized was that his hand was on Charlie’s thigh.  The second thing he realized was that he tasted and smelt just like her.  It was easy to tell that they hadn’t gone past a certain point of intimacy, but that was too much.  Garrus left with so much haste he forgot to say goodbye and was slightly gratified that Charlie was also panicking. 

 

Since that day, he had been avoiding her.  Garrus couldn’t trust himself around her, sometimes he found himself wondering if she always tasted like mint and cinnamon, but then he would slap himself and go exercise or … something.  It was difficult to see her at work and not go to lunch with her or talk with her or just stand near her and do nothing.  When he solved that first case, he should have been able to call her up and go hang out together.  Garrus would tease her and gloat, Charlie would call him a jackass and maybe hit him.  When had he become dependent on her presence? 

 

The yawning distance between them hadn’t happened all at once.  It had started with Garrus needing a few days to think after that night.  His head was tumult of conflicting emotions.  The loss of Lia was so incredibly fresh and like a complete idiot he had jeopardized his relationship with his best friend, because he needed comfort?  And did he actually feel anything for the human or was he just latching on to the first warm body that was near him?  There was no doubt in Garrus’ mind that he had instigated the interaction.  He would be lying if he said that he hadn’t considered it previously in the evening. 

 

After Charlie didn’t call him or come to visit or acknowledge him at work, Garrus was at a loss.  He wanted to corner her and demand that they work through whatever had happened that night.  He desperately wanted a return to normal, but he didn’t want to be the first one to cave.  Charlie must have been angry at him for whatever he did that night and Garrus wasn’t sure what he should do to mend the situation.  So he followed Charlie’s cue.

 

Grace had been difficult to avoid.  Where Charlie had silently agreed with the solitude, Grace had called him repeatedly and demanded that he come visit.  It was almost impossible to tell her no and keep coming up with excuses.  Eventually she just stopped calling and that was actually worse.  Garrus knew he had to fix this, but he didn’t know how.  He didn’t want to be with Charlie _like that_ , but he didn’t want to talk about it enough to tell her why he was avoiding her.

 

Garrus expelled the air from his lungs and decided that the incline on the treadmill was not high enough.  He almost missed the incoming call, but answered it before the last ring. 

 

“Vakarian.”  His tone was slightly aggravated since he just _knew_ it was work.

 

Garrus heard the soft sounds of breathing on the other end and almost closed out the call.  His eyes froze on the caller id though. 

 

Nacht, Charlie – Personal Line.

 

Garrus went back to the call, “Charlie.  Charlotte.  **Officer Nacht.** ”

 

The other line continued the rhythmic breathing.  She was sleeping.  He had heard her do it often enough.  Why would she call him and then fall asleep?  Accidental?  No, that wasn’t likely.  Omni-tools didn’t work if you were unconscious.  Garrus stopped thinking and quickly sent a tracer worm through the call.  He hoped Charlie’s encryption algorithms hadn’t changed. 

 

If omni-tools didn’t work when you were unconscious, then Charlie must have forced the program to continue running while she was.  The woman may have been infuriating Garrus lately, but she did not do things accidentally.  Charlie must be in some kind of trouble.  He knew her brand of games and this was not one of them.

 

Garrus was already running out his apartment door when his worm reported that Charlie was at home.  In the elevator, a new sound joined Charlie’s breathing. 

 

“Looks like we got both Nacht and Wallis.”

 

“Shit, get those off of her.  Break them!”

 

There was a horrible screeching sound and the line went dead.  Garrus roared at the slow elevator and slammed his fist into the metal wall. 

 

They had Charlie.

 

They had Grace.

 

Charlie and Grace.

 

Garrus decided the wall hadn’t hurt him enough and slammed his other fist into the dent.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Goys and Girls ... heeheeheeheheeehee (Sorry I've been watching too much Tales From the Crypt lately and I simply abound with puns. I have a problem ... I know.) Anyways, I have brought you a new chapter and I'm really excited about this story arc and ... nervous. Yes, I know that a Bat Mitzvah isn't that big of a deal in reality, but it's really exciting and feels like a big deal when your twelve. 
> 
> I dearly hope that no one is offended by how Judaism has evolved in this future. I'm not saying it's non-existent, just less common. Please don't shoot me.


	21. Chapter 21

 

 

Charlie was slowing coming around.  She had been having a lovely dream she couldn’t remember what it was about, but was Garrus in it?  No, that didn’t make sense.  She hadn’t dreamed about Garrus in … well for a few months and they had not been good dreams either.  She was dimly aware of a pounding in her head and that stole the last remnants of lingering happiness over the dream. 

 

She was laying on something very hard and cold.  Charlie tried to lift herself up, but found that she could not move her arms or legs.  Wriggling on her side she managed to flip herself over onto her front.  Pain shot through her arms as blood rushed back to the limbs.  The room was completely dark.  Charlie found that her arms had been bound behind her back and she could count three different knots of some kind of binding on them.  Her legs were bound similarly, with a knot at her ankles and around her knees.  To make movement even more impossible they had a line of rope, or wire she couldn’t tell, connecting her ankles to her wrists.

 

Charlie was thoroughly captured.  At least she wasn’t gagged.  She made a few small sounds to see if anyone else was in the room with her. 

 

“Ch-Char?”  The girl’s voice wavered and then Charlie could hear her crying.

 

“Ssh … Gracie, it’s okay.  I’m here.  Did they hurt you?”

 

Grace’s crying stopped with a sniffle.  “No, I don’t think so.  But I’m all t-tied up.”

 

“It’s alright, love, it’s alright.”  Charlie had to resort to the comforting cop voice she had to use with hysterical victims, because her actual voice was threatening to break.

 

“They’re going to kill us.”  Grace’s voice held the dead tone of certainty.

 

“No.  No one is going kill us, Garrus is coming.  He can find us and we’ll all go home.”

 

“I can hear them.  The loud man is thinking about how he is going to kill us and the other one is thinking about what he’ll --”

 

“Grace, honey, nobody is going to kill us.  We’re going to go home with Garrus and we’re going to plan your Bat Mitzvah.”  Charlie started to scoot her body in a slow and awkward crawl towards Grace’s voice.

 

“You can’t hear them, Char.  I know that you can’t, because I can hear you and you’re thinking that Garrus had better hurry up.  And you’re thinking about how you are going to kill those men.  And you’re thinking about how I might be crazy and I’m not … **I’m not crazy!** ”

 

Charlie had never heard Grace panic before.  She was, in fact, the calmest person that Charlie knew.  She was cool and collected during Mindoir.  She hadn’t panicked when her own mother died or when the beast had attacked them. 

 

“Grace Talitha Wallis, I am not thinking that you are crazy.  I _am_ thinking that I want to hurt the people that put us in here and I _am_ hoping that Garrus hurries up.  However I know that you are not crazy.  I don’t know why you telling me my thoughts, but I’m sure there is an explanation.”

 

Grace whimpered for minute and Charlie resumed the arduous trek to her.  “I think I might be crazy.”  She heard Grace whisper.

 

“You.  Are.  Not.  Crazy.”  Every word was punctuated with a grunt as Charlie scooted across the floor.

 

“How did you know you weren’t crazy when you woke up on Mindoir?”

 

Charlie stopped moving.  “What?”

 

“You know what I’m talking about.  I know where you are from, I’ve always known, but it didn’t always make sense.  So how did you know that you weren’t crazy?”

 

Charlie tried to move her mouth to respond to the girl, but she didn’t have any words to be uttered.  She just laid there awkwardly on the cold floor desperately trying to recall how to speak.

 

“Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht FL N145-87-590-0”

 

Charlie was starting to panic and could physically feel the cold dread wash over her.  That was her driver’s license.  When she had found it in the belongings sent to them by the Alliance from Mindoir all those years ago, she had quietly incinerated it.  It was incriminating evidence.  How had Grace found it?

 

“You must have read that at the house on Mindoir.”  She calmly reasoned.

 

“Your boyfriend’s name was Justin, he had a dog named Barnabus, and you were a math major.  Charlie answer my question, please.  How did you know you weren’t crazy?  I’ve never even heard you think the question.” 

 

Grace’s voice was starting to rise to a panic again and Charlie was forced to respond.

 

“I did think I was crazy.  I thought I was crazy when I woke up, when I saw the purple sky, and after the attack on Mindoir.  I thought that maybe this was all some elaborate dream or maybe I was making everything that had happened to me before up.”

 

“How did you know you weren’t?”

 

“You.  You were so real; I could reach out and touch you.  Also there were the smells, the pain, and all of the details that are impossible to imagine.  That’s how I knew that this is a real place.  I can’t prove that where I’m from is real, but I have too many memories for it to be false.  I don’t know how you are doing this, but that doesn’t make you crazy.  Different maybe, but hey, it’s alright, we’re all a little different.”

 

Charlie made it over to Grace and nuzzled her face against the girl’s. 

 

“So, do you want to tell me how big you want your party to be?  I bet Garrus is going to be so happy when he gets us out of here, that we can get him to pay for it.”

 

Charlie was rewarded with a giggle from Grace and she sighed in relief.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“With all due respect, sir, go fuck yourself!”

 

“Detective Vakarian, you not leading the team!”

 

“I didn’t ask for your permission, I’m informing you of the change in leadership.”  Garrus really wanted to throttle Pallin, but decorum just barely held him back.  As it was, his talons itched to sink into the man’s throat.

 

“Listen, we all care for her.  She’s a valued member of C-Sec.  I understand that you want to find her, I would like to go myself, but we all have a place and yours is right here.”

 

Garrus snapped his sniper rifle in place on his back and wheeled around to face Pallin.  “You do not get to talk about her, like you give a shit.  Nacht has been here for five years and you haven’t so much as given her a raise.  So fuck you very much, _sir._   If you really don’t want me to go, give me a good reason.  I have a perfect record on my sheet.  I have handled command situations in the past and I have not one, not two, but three letters of commendation for my ability to handle stressful situations.  And before you tell me that I’m too emotional to think clearly, one of those _stressful situations_ involved Charlie.”

 

Garrus silently prayed to any spirits watching that Pallin didn’t fact check his claim, as that particular commendation had been the first time he met Charlie.  Garrus was well aware that he was far too emotional right now, he just didn’t care.

 

“Vakarian … Garrus, I can’t let you lead.  This isn’t your team and they haven’t trained under you.”  Pallin sounded more haggard than Garrus had ever heard him.  “I know you probably think I’m lying, but I’ve tried to give Nacht a better patrol.  After the first half-dozen times, I just stopped trying.  If the Council ever gave me the go ahead, I’d make her detective in heartbeat.  They never will though.  She’s too loud.  In the five years she’s been here Charlotte Nacht has managed to piss off every council member and most of the ambassadors.  Spirits, I think even Goyle has gotten tired of the fuss.  You think Charlie hasn’t been offered a raise?  She has, believe me she has.  The fool woman turns them down, because the only raise I can offer a beat cop comes attached to a desk job.  Fuck, she has turned down awards because she was scared I might force her into a chair.  That woman is the best thing to happen to C-Sec since your father, so don’t you fucking think I don’t care about her.”

 

Garrus almost took a step backwards under force of Pallin’s anger.  It was thrumming through his words like a tidal wave. 

 

“Now I can’t go, because … well it wouldn’t be good if I got shot.  But you can be on the team.  You do _not_ get to lead it though.  I meant what I said.  It would jeopardize the mission and I’m not going to let her die, because some punk detective wanted to play the hero.”

 

Garrus nodded his head.  “Thank you, sir.  I’ll get her back.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Yeah, pretty much.  I mean normally I can’t hear people’s thoughts, unless I’m trying, and I can only ... well it’s kinda like I feel their emotions. I don’t know.  It’s kind of weird.  Of course when someone is sleeping it’s easier to hear fully formed thoughts and humans and turians are the easiest to hear.  Asari are almost impossible and salarians go far too quickly to make anything intelligible out.”

 

“Wow, so is that why you used to sleep with me?”

 

“I think so.  I don’t really remember, it was a long time ago.  But you have some really odd dreams.  They are full of people and places I don’t know.  It’s fascinating.”

 

Charlie shook her head with amazement.  Grace was amazing.  How had she not figured this out already and what the hell did it mean?

 

“I was scared you would send me away.”  Grace whispered.

 

“Of course I wouldn’t send you away.  No one is taking you away from me.”  Charlie nuzzled Grace again.

 

Nobody had come by to see them yet and it had to have been hours already.  Charlie wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not, because Grace said she could definitely hear them.

 

“There’s somebody new now.  I don’t know who he is, but he is really mad at the other two people out there.”  Grace’s voice sounded distant, like she was listening to a conversation.

 

There was a loud metallic creak of a door being opened, that cut off any follow up question Charlie had.  The sudden exposure to light blinded Charlie to the appearance of the intruder.

 

“Ah good, you’re both awake.  Time to join our little party.”  It was the voice of a middle aged man, with a distinct southern accent.  The drawl was almost too thick to make out the words and Charlie was struck by how long it had been since she heard that style of voice.

 

“Why don’t you tell us why we are here?”  Charlie had to work at making her voice stay meek.  All of her hostage training told her to let the criminal feel like he was in charge and to stay as non-threatening as possible.

 

“Sorry, not goin’ to do that just yet.  Want to get y’all together, first.”

 

Hands were roughly dragging her away from Grace and Charlie could now see the fear in the girl’s eyes.  She forced herself to stay calm, knowing that Grace would understand her even if she couldn’t use the words. 

 

She was dragged through a narrow hall and recognized the plain walls as keeper tunnels.  At the end of the hall was a room and Charlie was thrown on the hard ground.

 

“Why don’t you acquaint yourself with your new friend?  I’ll be right back with Talitha.” 

 

Charlie did not like his manic grin and empty eyes.  A chill ran down her spine.  She looked awkwardly around the room to find the other occupant and saw a large turian who was trussed up in a similar fashion as herself. 

 

“I see I finally have company.”  The dry quality in his voice was not lost on Charlie.

 

“How long have you been here?”

 

“A week, I believe.  But it’s hard to tell.  They keep moving me around.”

 

He shuffled his body back and forth, till he could see her face.  Charlie stifled a gasp.  There weren’t many turians who had the unusual elongated cheek spines or the enlarged forehead plate.  The turian’s face had so many harsh angles, that he looked even more alien than the average turian.

 

“Saren.”  Charlie spoke the name like a dark prayer.

 

“I prefer Spectre Arterius, but you’re still correct.  Do I know you?”

 

“No, I don’t believe so.  I’m Charlie Nacht.”

 

Saren flicked his mandibles in surprise.  “ _Officer_ Charlie Nacht?”  After seeing Charlie’s nod, he continued.  “You have a knack for finding Spectres, Nacht.”

 

“Nihlus told you about me.”

 

“Yes, my little student seemed to think you had potential.  Clearly not enough to avoid capture.”

 

“Well they got you too and I’m not a Spectre.  How many are there?  I’ve counted only three.”

 

“That’s all I’ve seen, as well.”

 

“Damn.  How did they orchestrate this with just the three of them?”

 

Saren scoffed, “Obviously there are more of them, child.”

 

Charlie heard Bill call from the doorway, “Nope, just the three of us.  Glad to see you two gettin’ along so well.  I’ve got a present for ya.”  He threw Grace awkwardly on top of her. 

 

“Now we don’t have much time, so let’s get down to business; shall we?”

 

“Human bastard, let us go.  What kind of monster kidnaps their own young?”  Charlie shot Saren a glare and tried to will him to be quiet.

 

“When the council finds out what you’ve done …”

 

“Yes, I know.  ‘I’ll pay’.”  The man pointed at Saren.  “This guy is as much of a broken record as he was in the game.  The difference is that now I can do this.”  The man kicked Saren in the chest and when he started wheezing, the attacker bubbled up insane little giggles.

 

“Why don’t you tell me why you took us?”  Charlie said in her very best “talk calmly to the crazy man”voice.

 

“Oh you would like that wouldn’t you?  Who the fuck are you anyways?  You shouldn’t be here, but here you are anyways fucking up the motherfucking timeline!”  The man’s voice seemed to only have two levels; either insane southern drawl speaking softly or equally insane southern drawl screaming.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“See I’ll start at the beginning, ‘cause I have to know who the fuck you are.  We’re all dead anyways.  I kept a special eye on Mindoir, hoping that Shepard would come out of there, right?  See there were three places she or he could start.  There’s Earth, or a spacer kid, or Mindoir.  Now the first two are pretty hard to watch closely, ‘specially since an Earth kid meant that Shepard was an orphan.  Mindoir though, that’s easy.  So when I heard of the batarian attack on the colony.  Boy howdy, I was damn happy.  I had finally found Shepard.  But do you know what happened?” 

 

He reached down and pulled Grace up by her hair.  At Charlie’s cry of protest he gave her a kick in the ribs and continued to drag Grace away. 

 

“I found out that two people survived.  Two!  There was only supposed to be one survivor and it was supposed to be Shepard.  That’s why it’s called the **SOLE SURVIVOR**!”  The man stomped foot and then raised Grace up to meet his eyes.

 

“And you, Talitha.  You’re supposed to be an enslaved bitch right now.  You’re supposed to be being brainwashed by some batarian scum and then Shepard can either choose to save you or let you kill yourself.”  He tossed Grace across the room to the other man who was staying quiet and was wearing a hungry smile.  “Go ahead and do what you will with her.  She’s not important.”

 

“No!”  Charlie could not let that happen.  “Wait, I understand.  This was all game, right?”

 

“Don’t you fuckin’ patronize me, whore!”  The man roared at Charlie and gave her another kick.

 

“It … was called Mass Effect, am I right?”  Charlie gasped trying to catch her breath after the brutal attack.  “BioWare?”

 

The crazed man took a step backwards and blinked at Charlie.

 

“If Gra-- … if _Talitha_ gets hurt, I might not be able to tell you what I know.”  It was a pretty big gamble.

 

“You can’t give me ultimatums.”

 

“You’re right, I’m in no position to do so.  You are in charge, here.  But if you let the man do anything to her, you’ll have to kill me before I stop struggling.”

 

The man seemed to understand Charlie’s logic and directed the other man to put Grace back near Charlie.

 

“What’s your name?”

 

“Bill is enough for you.  Now it’s my turn.  When you first came from Mindoir, I thought you might Shepard.  Maybe you change your name, in the future.  It was exciting, but then you fucked everything up.  Who are you?”

 

“You already know my name.  I’m from Florida and I was twenty-five when I got to Mindoir.  I was just a poor college student.  There wasn’t anything special about me.  What part did I mess up?”

 

Charlie could see Saren out of the corner of her eye; he was staring at her like she was crazy.  She really wondered how, if they got out of here, she was going to explain all of this away.

 

“Let’s see I first saw the mistakes when I noticed that Goyle had added you to the short list of future Spectre candidates.  There were other names on there as well, but your name stood out to me.  The first big mistake was when Officer Harkin was fired.  He was important, why did you get him fired?”

 

Charlie blinked in surprise.  Harkin?  Harkin was in the game?  “Uh … he tried to rape one of the prostitutes and I got her to give a confession.”

 

Her answer was rewarded with a slap in the face.  “Harkin was supposed to get fired during the first game and he was _supposed_ to become the Fade in the second game.  He was important to Garrus’ loyalty mission!”

 

Charlie did not remember that.  She could vaguely remember Garrus’ loyalty mission, he was supposed to kill someone or … damn this is why she wrote down everything a while ago.  She had to keep him talking and if was talking about her, then he wasn’t harassing Grace.  Charlie could taste the blood pooling in her mouth from her cut lip, but she swallowed it down and kept talking.

 

“What else did I mess up?”

 

“Thane.”

 

“Thane?”

 

“You do fucking remember him, right?”  Bill sneered at her.

 

Charlie mentally kicked herself.  “The drell assassin that got away, that was Thane.”

 

“Good fucking job there, by the way.  Would you like to know how you fucked up that one?”

 

“Yes, I would.”  _No, I would not._

 

“First of all, there was the problem with Mouse.  You remember Jon, the little orphan you convinced to go back to school?  Well before grand ole Nacht swooped down from on high to save the Citadel’s whores and duct rats, he used to run with a gang and called himself …?”

 

“Mouse, I remember.”

 

“Good to see you’re paying attention.  Well if Mouse had still been around, then Thane would have gotten better information regarding his hits.  As it was, he only managed to pull off one of his assassinations that night.  I don’t know exactly how many more were planned, but if you hadn’t injured him it was going to be more than fucking one.

 

“And that’s not even the worst part of that night.  Hey Spectre Asshole, what did Nihlus tell you about Officer Nacht when he got back from the mission?”

 

Saren, who was clearly less than thrilled to being included in this insanity, grumbled.  “He said that Nacht had Spectre potential.”

 

Bill clapped his hands at the news.  “You.  Certainly.  Know.  How.  To.  Get.  Attention.”  Every word was punctuated to a kick somewhere on Charlie’s body.  She was very glad that she was used to taking abuse on the sparring mat.  Otherwise she might not have been able to keep from passing out.

 

“Shepard was supposed to get nominated by Nihlus not your sorry ass.”

 

Charlie was caught between gasping for breath and choking on the blood pooling in her lungs.

 

“I have been here for over thirty years and I have stayed out of sight.  I went to school and got a degree. I worked for a while on a defense contract and I never once fucked with the timeline.  You have been here for only six years and it’s rapidly going to hell.  All we had to do was sit on our damn hands until 2183 and watch it all play out, but that wasn’t enough for Charlie Nacht was it?”

 

“What did you work on?”  _Just keep him talking, Garrus is coming… he’ll save us.  He has to._

 

“Just some VI, well more of a modified AI, god she was perfect.”  Bill’s eyes glazed over for a moment.

 

“She?”  Charlie had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

 

“Well, of course, VIs don’t have gender, but she always felt like a girl.  She wasn’t meant for anything special, just a defense program to intelligently handle turrets.  I never toldthem that she was an AI, but it’s not like they’ll figure it out.  She’s not even aware enough to know it herself.”

_No.  He … no.  That doesn’t make sense._

 

“I’m surprised that the games didn’t turn you off of AIs.”

 

Bill gave her an odd look.  “Why because of the geth?  They were the only AIs ever mentioned and I never even saw any until the third game.”

 

“No, that’s not right.  What about Rannoch?”  Charlie blurted out before she could will her mouth closed.

 

Bill’s odd look deepened and Charlie could see anger building there.  “The quarian homeworld?  The fuck does that have to do with anything?  Shepard goes there and brokers peace between them and the geth, but they’re kinda nice.  Why the fuck would the games turn me off of AIs?”

 

An alarm interrupted them and the other man, not Bill, pulled up an image on the screen.  It was from a camera placed high on a ceiling and showed a seven SWAT members rushing by.

 

“Dammit all, they’re early.”  Bill growled in frustration.

 

“Garrus.”  Grace whispered and Charlie shook her head to stop her from saying anything else.

 

Bill snapped his head towards Grace.  “Garrus?  Garrus Vakarian?  Which one is he?”  The last question was directed Charlie, who stayed silent.

 

“I.  Asked.  You.  A.  Question.”  Again every word was accented by a blow, but this time Bill had lifted her up and was striking her face.

 

Charlie spit the blood out and glared at him with her first display of defiance.  “I’m not telling you.”

 

He sneered at her and then turned the look into disgust.  “Were you one of those Garrus fangirls that pined over him?  Disgusting.  Is that why you’ve been getting close to him?  To play out all of your sick fantasies?  **Stop fucking with the goddamn timeline!** ”

 

Charlie was extremely offended by the implication.  During her first and only play through the games, she had romanced Kaidan, then Thane, and then Kaidan again.  Charliehad never really seen the appeal of Garrus, he was always too busy to talk in the second game.  All of that flashed through her head in an instant though, as Bill dragged her across the room to the screen.

 

“If you don’t tell me which one he is, then I’ll kill them all.”

 

“You wouldn’t kill Garrus, he’s a party member.”

 

Bill gave her a sneer.  “He’s an _optional_ party member.”

 

Charlie was torn, but only for a moment.  Bill was going to make good on the threat, she knew it.  Charlie gave a quick look at all of the men and immediately knew which one was Garrus, even though they were all wearing identical armor. 

 

“The third from the left, I gave him that mod for his rifle.” 

 

“Good job, I knew you’d come around.”  Bill had a wild grin plastered on his face again and Charlie’s stomach soured.  “Ooh watch this, you’re goin’ to love it.”

 

Bill entered a command into the console and all of the turians in the vid clutched their helmets and started screaming.  The sound they were making was the most horrible thing Charlie had ever heard.  It sounded like a death cry. 

 

“Spirits, stop it.”  Saren had a slight keening trickling through his voice.

 

Still grinning, Bill continued on like nothing horrible was happening.  “See I have hacked into their translator chip.  It wasn’t even that difficult.  Well developing the software to do it took some time, but now I can control it like that.”  He snapped his fingers.  “Right now their brains are slowly cooking.  Can you believe that people _willingly_ put chips in their brains?  Oh don’t you worry, little dove, Garrus is only going to be knocked out.  We’ll get your boy toy up here soon enough.”

 

Bill made a small motion at the other man and with a grunt he left the room.  He then dragged Charlie back to her original spot and unceremoniously dropped her there. 

 

“Since C-Sec decided to move up my schedule I’m going to need to make this quick; do you know where we are?”

 

None of them answered, so Charlie ventured.  “In the keeper tunnels?”

 

“Well … yeh, but do you know what we are under?”

 

The three prisoners were silent.

 

“We’re under the Presidium, guess where?”

 

“The relay monument.”  Charlie whispered the words and realized that Bill was also a complete fool on top of being crazy.

 

Bill clapped his hands with feigned joy at the right answer.  “Since you have shot the Mass Effect timeline all to shit, I figured it was time for me to take matters into my own hands.  So, I found all of the key players.  Talitha,” He lifted the girl again, though this time he did so with a grip on her arm.  “You should either be dead or a slave and it’s too late to make you a slave.  So dead it’ll have to be.”

 

He dropped her back on the ground.  “Saren, I’m just going to kill you before you go completely crazy.  You haven’t found Sovereign yet, right?”

 

“You’re insane!”  Saren bellowed.

 

“Well that’s not very nice, but I’ll take it as a ‘no’.  Ah Mr. Vakarian, you decided to join our soiree.”

 

A conscious Garrus was pulled into the room.  His limbs had already been bound, though he was fighting the men dragging him.

 

“You just killed five cops … you are not leaving here alive!  Where are Charlie and Grace?  Fucker if …”

 

“Garrus.  We’re right here.”  Charlie had to cut him off, because getting angry at these men was not a good idea.

 

Garrus whipped his head around trying to find her, but the angle made that impossible.

 

“Oh I see you have succeeded in making Garrus love you, how fucking sweet.”  Bill appeared to be amused by the exchange and that deeply disturbed Charlie.  “Put the lovebirds together.”

 

The two kidnappers left Garrus next to Charlie and Garrus turned his head to say something to her.

 

“Shh.”  Charlie told him before turning back to Bill.  The man had gone back to the control panel; she had to get him away from there.

 

“I was enjoying the talk we were having before.”  Charlie attempted.

 

“Oh yes, where was I?”

 

“You were telling me why we are under the relay monument.”

 

“Well I thought that much was clear.  I’m going to blow it up.”

 

“But the whole station is a relay.”

 

Bill grinned suddenly, crossed the room, and crouched down in front of her.  His face was far too close to her own.  “That’s why I’m disabling the entire station.  Tell me how many keepers have you seen recently.  We are in their tunnels and yet I haven’t seen a one.  Have you, Jayson?”

 

“No.”  Came the reply from the other kidnapper.

 

“You see, I realized that blowing up the whole station is too difficult.  So instead I’ve been slowly killing off the keeper population.  Did you know that without the steady maintenance of the little bugs, that the station will be completely without power in a few weeks and in a few months the reactor will nova?”

 

“Why would you do this?”  Saren asked.

 

“Because then the Reapers can’t get to our galaxy from dark space and, of course, it would kill off the Catalyst so that’s a bonus.  Try to keep up, Spectre.”

 

Charlie had a different question.  “What did you do to the keepers?”

 

He shrugged.  “I knew that the protheans could communicate with them well enough to get them to ignore the signal, so I just had to find the right frequency.  Now they are infected with a virus that causes them to believe they are in peril and they will self-destruct.  Simple really.”

 

“Then why take us?  I don’t understand what we change.”

 

Bill walked over to a table and picked up a Kessler pistol.  “Because I had to make sure that certain people were caught in the blast, namely Saren and you.  Jayson, Peter, and I going to die today and so are everyone in this room.”

 

“No.”  Charlie spoke up, she had a plan, but even if it worked … she wasn’t getting out of here alive.  Maybe Grace would though.

 

“What did you say, bitch?”

 

Charlie pulled herself into an awkward kneeling position.  “You shouldn’t kill them, because they belong here.  We don’t.  What happens if Shepard doesn’t defeat Saren?  She won’t be able to handle the Collectors and you know the Reapers are still coming.”

 

“Liar!  With the Citadel destroyed they can’t get here.”

 

“Does that sound like it would really stop them?  You were right; I have messed up the timeline.  We both have and we don’t belong here.  So, kill me instead.  Kill us both and then we’ll both stop messing up this universe.”

 

“Charlie, no.”  Garrus’ voice was low and pleading, but Charlie had to ignore it.

 

“We’ve already messed it up too much now.”  Bill was protesting, but Charlie thought she could see him turning towards her plan.

 

“Did you find the real Shepard?”

 

“Yeah, she’s the Butcher of Torfan.”  Bill bore a wistful smile.  “That was always my favorite.”

 

Charlie suppressed a shudder.  “Good, then she’ll be able to handle whatever comes.  Grace can live.  Garrus can live.  And Saren has to live if the timeline is to be restored.  We will die together.”

 

“Agreed, you die now.”  Bill clicked the safety off and placed the barrel to Charlie’s head.

 

“Let them go first.”  The cold metal pressed into her forehead, but Charlie kept her eyes locked onto Bill’s.

 

Bill laughed.  “Why?  I’m still going to destroy the Citadel.  That train has no brakes.  However, you were right, Charlie Nacht, you don’t belong here.”

 

The air started to tingle and then there was a burning sensation on Charlie’s skin. 

 

“ **I am not losing another mom, you son of a bitch!** ” 

 

Charlie did not recognize the distorted voice, but it sounded vaguely feminine.  Grace? 

 

Before she could give much thought to this, Bill, Jayson, and Peter were pulled together by a blue light.  The air was still crackling with the energy and Charlie thought that she could hear a rushing sound.  The men were screaming and throwing colorful strings of expletives at them as they struggled fruitlessly against the invisible force caging them.

 

Their faces began to shift from rage to pain and Charlie could see thin red lines start to form under their skin.  Bill’s eyes seemed to bug out and Charlie had to look away as the flames that originated from inside his body leapt out and consumed him.  Chunks of charred flesh fell from him and were pulled towards the center of the tangled bodies.

 

The blue light started to falter and Charlie, who had fallen forward on the ground after Bill was pulled away, found that she could move her arms and legs.  The air was filled with the stench of burning flesh and she gagged on the putrid smell. 

 

Charlie heard Garrus yell, “Grace!”

 

She moved her hand under her and managed to pull her body up off the floor, but her midsection was burning.  Looking down she saw blood pooling around her side and with a groan Charlie clamped her hand on the gunshot wound.  When she finally saw Grace, thoughts of her own pain left her. 

 

Grace was convulsing on the floor and was bleeding from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

 

Charlie limped over to the girl, flipped Grace on her side, and checked her airway for blockages.  She was still breathing though, just having a violent seizure.  

 

“Charlie, we’re still tied up.”  Garrus’ voice seemed a little distant, but she pulled her mind back to the present and stumbled across the room to help him.

 

“You’re bleeding!”  Garrus observed as Charlie struggled with the bindings.

 

“I noticed.”  Every syllable was laced with pain.

 

“He shot you!”

 

“Again, I noticed.  There, get your own legs.”  Charlie tried to stand back up to go back to Grace, but her legs didn’t cooperate and she landed on the ground with a cry.

 

After he was done freeing his legs, Garrus moved to help Charlie up; but she waved him off.  “Get Saren, first.  We need to leave.”

 

Charlie crawled back to Grace, who had finished convulsing and was lying on the ground with her eyes rolled back and lined with red blood.  Charlie sighed in relief, when she felt the still beating pulse.   Garrus and Saren were arguing about something and it was difficult to pay attention to the men.

 

“We have to stop the bomb.”  Garrus was standing by the control panel and was furiously typing at it.

 

“It’s already too late for that.  We need to leave.  Now.”  Saren wasn’t yelling, but there was a quiet command to his tone.

 

“Fine, you get them out of here.  I’ll stop the bomb.”

 

“Alright.” 

 

Saren moved over to the women and put Grace over his shoulder.  When he lifted Charlie to a standing position, she pleaded.  “No, Garrus.  You can’t stay here.”

 

“Charlotte, it’s a really big bomb.  If it goes off, then it could vent atmosphere to the entire Presidium.  That’s too many lives lost.”  He didn’t look up from the panel he was working on.

 

“I’m not letting you stay here alone.  I’ll stay with you.  Let me go, Saren.”  Her weak attempts at a struggle were ignored completely by the large turian.

 

“I won’t be able to carry your fat ass out of here when I’m ready to go.”  Garrus finally turned to her.  “Charlotte, you can’t give me orders.  I _can_ give you orders, get out of here.  Saren, you better fucking leave before she bleeds out.”

 

Charlie wanted to cry and protest, but she could see the wisdom in Garrus’ words.  She had gotten shot, again.  She was in no position to stay and in even less of a position to assist him.  As they moved quickly through the tunnels, the irony of her position was not lost on Charlie.  Saren Arterius, the arch-nemesis of Shepard, was saving her life.  Charlie might have laughed if it wasn’t so painful.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was a huge chapter and an equally huge pain. It was incredibly difficult to get everything Bill tells her just right, but I think I did it. I hope it came out alright and you guys like it. This was kind of a big event in the story. By the way, Charlie's driver's license is actually what her number would have been if she was a real person. It was stupid, but I wanted it to be accurate so I used an algorithm I found online. Yay! Something that doesn't matter is accurate. :P
> 
> Also, I realized about 100k words after I initially wrote this that I totally messed up when Shepard becomes the Butcher. As I would have to severely edit my story. I'm going to pretend that the Skyllian Blitz happens earlier than 2176. If you think about it it totally doesn't make sense that the Alliance would commission the Jon Grissom Academy and place it over Elysium the same year it's proven that Elysium isn't very well protected. It's crazy. So, for the sake of continuity with the story, try and pretend for me that the Blitz happened just a few years prior to the date given in the game.
> 
> Again, I'm sorry.


	22. Chapter 22

 

“Crap.”

 

It was like something out of a bad vid, if Garrus had the capacity to do so, he would have been sweating.  The first thing he did was to find his confiscated omni-tool and upload the contents of the console to the C-Sec cloud network.  Then he spent minutes trying to access the ignition subroutines.  Bill, who was now a pile of bones and smoldering ash, had been extremely paranoid and a much better programmer than Garrus.  Even the technicians at C-Sec were struggling.  Between them all they had managed to prevent all of the explosives from detonating except for one.  The one that was directly under the Relay Monument, which was also directly above Garrus’ location.

 

“We’ve got five minutes on the count, you need to leave now.”  The tinny salarian voice told him.

 

“No, I can do this.”

 

“Vakarian, get your ass out of there.”  That was the grating voice of Pallin.

 

Garrus growled once more at the screen before turning and running down the hall.  It wasn’t difficult to follow the path Saren took.  He just needed to follow the trail of blood.  Garrus stomach turned with the amount blood that Charlie must have lost. 

_Dammit, the fool woman did it to herself.  She provoked a mad man._

 

That wasn’t fair and he knew it, but he was so angry and the only people he had any right to be angry at were dead.  And he hadn’t been the one to kill them. 

 

Garrus was a good distance away when he felt the explosion.  The vibrations in the walls and floor, knocked him briefly off his feet, but he was up and running again. 

 

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie woke up in a hospital, again.  This time wasn’t the pleasant ride into awareness, where individual senses gradually made themselves present.  This time was a sudden jar into consciousness, there was pain and smells and noises and lights all at once.  Charlie thought that she might sick from the sensation, but she swallowed it back down and peered around at her location.

 

It could have been the same hospital room from before, but this time there were quite a few people occupying the room.  It looked like they were mostly hospital staff, but she spotted two out of place faces. 

 

“Hackett.”

 

The admiral stopped speaking to the turian and looked over at her. 

 

“Nacht.”

 

That was when the hoard of doctors descended on her and Charlie had to bat their arms away from her.  

 

“No, you are not putting me under again.  I’m awake and I feel fine.  Back off.”  That was definitely a lie.  She felt terrible, but Charlie didn’t want the vultures to know that.  She had questions.

 

Hackett and the turian, who turned out to be Pallin, made their way over to her bed after the doctors left.  The admiral cleared his throat and gestured to her chest. 

 

“Son of a bitch,” she swore as she quickly covered her front with the blanket.  Apparently they had still been working on her.

 

“Okay I’m decent.  What’s going on?”

 

“The bomb went off under the Relay Monument.”  Pallin growled.

 

Charlie heart skipped a few beats.  “Garrus?”

 

“He’s fine.  Vakarian managed to keep the explosion to a minimum and got out with only a fractured leg and some scratches.”

 

Charlie breathed a painful sigh of relief.  “Good.  So why are you two here?  Is it Grace?  She was alive when we left.”

 

“It is partly about Grace, yes.  However, that is a conversation we will have alone.”  Hackett said with a nod to Pallin.

 

“We’re here, because there is a human female who is going to speak with you and we need to talk to you first.  Apparently this,” Pallin looked down at a data pad. “Emily Wong,is going to do an exposé on you.”

 

Charlie blanched. 

_They know, oh shit, Saren told them about my conversation with Bill.  What are they going to do me?_

 

If he noticed her fear, Pallin didn’t acknowledge it.  “Apparently the report Saren gave the council regarding your tactics with the terrorist, William Trevinsky, was leaked to the press.”  Pallin shot an accusatory glance at Hackett, who slightly shrugged.  “Anyways, Wong seems to want to incite the human civilians to protest you having not made detective already.  Congratulations, political maneuvering is giving you a promotion.”  His tone was desert dry.

 

Charlie blinked and had to swallow to moisten her suddenly dry throat.  “Sir, you know this isn’t how I wanted this.  I had nothing to do with this … scandal.”

 

“Regardless, you have the promotion.  Remember to tell Wong that you were promoted due to our _gratitude_ of saving lives and mention how much you enjoy working for C-Sec and blah blah blah.  You get the point.”

 

“Executor, could you give us a moment?”  Hackett told the turian.

 

“Actually, I have one more question.”  Charlie put in quickly.  “What about the keepers?  Bill said that he had reprogrammed them or something like that.”

 

Pallin looked back at the datapad, but his eyes didn’t seem to be reading the words there.  “Honestly, we’re not sure what is going on with them.  We’ve never been particularly knowledgeable about their biology or communication abilities, but they seem to be fine.  I don’t know if Bill’s experiment failed or they just … got over it.  We have some xenobiologists talking about how the keepers’ visible population has been waning in the Bachajaret Ward, which was where Trevinsky had been residing.  However, the keepers were the first on the scene of the explosion and have been working on rebuilding the site.  They even rebuilt the monument.  Anyways, the current theory, as far as I understand it, is that the keepers perceived Trevinsky as a threat and have been giving him a wide berth.  Whatever the reason, they appear to be fine.”

 

Hackett gave the executor a pointed look and a small gesture towards Charlie.

 

Pallin nodded, but before he left he put a hand on Charlie’s shoulder.  “I’m glad you didn’t die.” 

 

“What’s going on with Grace?”  Charlie baldly asked the admiral after Pallin had left.

 

Hackett took a seat in a chair next to her bed, before he answered.  “Apparently she is a biotic.  Do you have any idea why that is?”

 

Charlie had already figured that out, but she hadn’t given much thought as to how Grace gained her biotic abilities.  Charlie shook her head and voiced the same.

 

“No.”

 

Hackett narrowed his eyes at her, trying to pull the truth from her.  However, Charlie was telling the truth.

 

“To the best of my knowledge, a human can only become a biotic if exposed to element zero.  I’m fairly sure that Grace wasn’t, sir.  I definitely didn’t know before today.”

 

“I was really hoping that you would have some answers.”  He sighed.

 

“Where is she?”

 

“Grace Wallis is being held in a secure facility while we wait to transfer her to a school.”

 

“You cannot take her from me.  She is mine.  I signed the papers; I am a C-Sec Officer.  You can’t do this!”  Charlie pulled herself up in bed, ignoring her protesting torso.

 

“Officer Nacht, she has undeveloped biotic potential.  We absolutely can take her and make sure she doesn’t harm anyone.  From Vakarian’s and Arterius’ reports she used a pull on two men simultaneously, held them in place possibly with a singularity, and lit them on fire from the inside.  I have never heard of a more impressive and _dangerous_ breakthrough.”

 

Damn the man, he had a point. 

 

Tension and anger were still riding hard in Charlie’s muscles.  “I don’t know of a human biotics program that isn’t needlessly cruel.  If you put her in BAaT, I swear god I will …”

 

Hackett held up a hand to stop her tirade.  “It’s not BAaT, Nacht.  We have a new program that we are starting up.  The Alliance wasn’t going to have it go live until next year, but we’re jumpstarting it early.  The Ascension program at a new school called Jon Grissom Academy.  It’s not going to have the militant focus of our previous programs and Grace _is_ going to attend.”

 

Charlie glared at the man.  Hackett was doing what he promised he wouldn’t, he was taking Grace away.  Damn it, she had just finished promising Grace that this would never happen.

 

“Can I see her?”

 

Hackett shifted in his seat, but didn’t respond.

 

“You’re going to take a twelve-year-old girl away from her home and not let the closest thing she has to a parent see her?  That doesn’t sound good, Hackett.  Emily Wong might even agree with me.”

 

He stared at her, anger flickering in his eyes.  “I’ve been told she is too dangerous without supervision.”

 

“Grace?  Dangerous?  The girl is scared of spiders, but she won’t even kill _them_.  I have to do it.  She may not be in complete control of her body, but she is not dangerous.  Unless you happen to be holding a gun to my head, that is.  So unless you are planning to do that and I promise that she will be the least of your concerns if you follow through that course of action.  You are letting her say goodbye and then I am going to get permission to visit her at least once a month.”

 

“It’s not that I want to keep the two of you apart but until we can assess the extent of her abilities; that’s how it has to be.”

 

“I don’t accept that.”

 

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud turian voice, Charlie knew so well, shouting angrily at someone at the door.  “I told you I have C-Sec authority and you are letting me in.”

 

The door swished open and Garrus quickly stepped through.  He stopped and looked at the conversation between the admiral and Charlie.

 

“Ah perfect timing.”  Charlie grinned at Garrus.  “Garrus, do you have an omni-tool handy?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Good.  Find where the Alliance is holding Grace and get me some clothes.  We’re leaving.”

 

Garrus glared at Hackett before turning to the cabinets to find Charlie a dressing gown.

 

“You cannot be serious, Nacht.”

 

“As a heart attack, Admiral.  I told you that I’m seeing her off.  I apparently can’t stop you from taking her, but you can’t stop me from saying goodbye, unless you wanted to shoot humanities first C-Sec detective?  My guess is that you don’t.”

 

Garrus came back with a long “gown” that was more of a very long sleeveless shirt.  “That’ll do nicely, thank you.”

 

Garrus carefully ignored Charlie’s momentary nudity as she got dressed.  He was focused on his omni-tool.

 

“Interesting, Grace Wallis is actually in Huerta level 4 room 12.”  Garrus spoke after a moment of tapping on the screen.

 

“What’s level 4?”  Charlie’s voice was slightly muffled by the fabric.

 

Garrus leveled a hard stare at Hackett.  “Psychiatric Care.”

 

“We don’t know how Grace will react emotionally to seeing you.”  Hackett was standing now.

 

Charlie seemed to consider this point and looked up at the towering turian. “Garrus, do feel at all concerned with our safety in the vicinity of Grace?”

 

“Not even a little bit, Charlotte.  I mean unless someone points another gun at your head, but then I’d just be concerned with their safety.”

 

Charlie’s grin was triumphant.  “Exactly what I said.  Now give me your hand I’m getting out of this farkakte bed.”

 

“Nacht, you just got out of surgery!”  Hackett’s words came too late as Charlie sunk to the ground with a groan.  Thankfully her descent was stopped by Garrus.

 

“Sorry big guy, looks like you’re going to carry me.  Let’s go.”

 

Hackett followed the two the entire way.  He was actually making some good points.  Mostly concerning not stopping for a wheelchair or how Charlie was probably going to need surgery again to fix whatever damage she was causing.  However, Charlie couldn’t help but acknowledge that he was also right about Grace needing to go Grissom.  She was extremely grateful that Hackett was going through the trouble of getting Grace into the academy, but every maternal instinct told her to fight for Grace.  So that is what she was doing.

 

The hospital staff on Level 4 were a little surprised at the odd procession of people, but they steered clear of them.  At the door to Grace’s room, Hackett waved Garrus and Charlie through the Alliance soldiers who were standing guard. 

 

Garrus stopped before entering the room.  “Do you want me to go in with you?  I could put you down and then leave.”  His nervousness made Charlie chuckle.

 

“Shut up, Vakarian, we’re going in there together.  I think Grace likes you more than me anyways.”

 

Her humor was rewarded with a smile and together they entered the room. 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“I’m not going hurt anyone else, I promise.  Please let me out!”

 

Grace struggled against the bindings of the bed.  It was frustrating that she couldn’t remember how she got Char free.  She had been so scared when Bill had put the gun up to Char’s head.  Before it happened Grace had had to block out the men’s thoughts, they were so powerful and hateful and insane.  Bill’s had been the loudest of them all; his emotions had threatened to drown her. 

 

So Grace kept quiet and occupied her brain with thinking about school.  Chemistry and Physics had been giving her trouble lately.  When Bill grabbed Char, however, Grace reacted.  She didn’t know how she did it, but she did know what it was that she did.  Grace first had to make the men get closer to each other, so she made a gravity-well in a specific area and pulled them together, Grace didn’t know how she prevented everyone else from joining them, but she did … somehow.  It felt natural.  Like when you tie your shoes without thinking, you don’t sit there and purposefully make loops and knots … you just do it. 

 

The only part that Grace had really had to think about was when she set them on fire.  Grace had always thought that fire was a really interesting chemical reaction.  It was so basic to survival and people had been doing it for thousands of years.  So she started the oxidation process deep inside of them, at first she didn’t do it quickly enough for a good burn.  So she sped it up.  Grace became so focused on the process that she forgot to listen to the thoughts around her. 

 

The first foreign thought wriggled through the crack of her determination and it was Bill’s.  The intensity of the emotion that bore it was so powerful that Grace almost let the wall of her determination crumble right then.  He was begging her, begging Grace to stop hurting him.  She almost did, but Grace could also feel Char next to her and that woman’s pain was caused by this man.  He deserved death and worse. 

 

Grace let the memories of her mother’s death and Jess’ death fill in the cracks of her wall and she redoubled her efforts.  When they had died, she couldn’t do anything.  She was too young and the best she could offer was to stay quiet.  But now, now she was powerful and no one would hurt her loved ones again.

 

The power was draining though and Grace was slipping.  She didn’t remember hitting the floor and she didn’t remember how she got Char free.  Grace’s last thoughts had been to help the woman, but then everything went dark.  Well that’s not true.  She could still hear, not with her ears though. 

 

When she could finally open her eyes, Grace was in this room.  Nobody came to see her, but she could feel them through the walls.  Occasionally someone would talk to her through a comm. system, but they kept asking questions that she didn’t know how to answer.  Grace didn’t know how she did those things or why she could do them or when she was exposed to eezo.  The only people she could feel outside the room were frightened; there was just so much fear.  To have that fear be directed at her was something new to Grace and she hated it.  Had she done something terrible?  Yes, but it had been in self-defense.  Surely that meant it was okay.  Right?  Grace thought back to the last contorted agony fueled thoughts from the men she had killed and remembered exactly what she had done to them.  Maybe she was a monster.

 

Then she felt a break in the emotions and then there were two people singing in harmony outside the room.  Grace knew these people.  Their emotions weren’t always in harmony, but when they were … it was almost terrifying.

 

The door opened and Garrus and Char stepped in.  He was carrying Char and Grace was immediately concerned for the woman.

 

“They have you tied up?  Garrus, put me down on the bed and deal with this.”  Char barked the order.

 

Garrus growled at her, but complied.  “Grace, you are lucky I love you so much.  If you were anyone else I would have dropped that woman on the ground and left the room.”  He glared at Char over the glow of his omni-tool.  “It’s still tempting.”

 

Grace laughed in spite of herself.  Relief flooded her body seeing the two of them there.  They wouldn’t leave her here and they would all go home together.

 

“Are you okay, honey?  Did they hurt you?”  Char’s voice was low and dangerous.  Her hands were moving across Grace’s face and searching for injuries.

 

“No, they just left me here alone.  They’re scared of me.”  The bindings clicked open and Grace sat up in bed and made room for Garrus to sit on the other side of her.

 

They sat quietly for a moment, while Char hugged her tightly and Garrus gently patted her head.

 

“Can we go home?” Grace asked tentatively.

 

The much larger adults shared a look over her head. 

 

Charlie spoke first.  “Actually, you are going to a special school.  There are other kids there and the teachers will help you control your biotics.”

 

“No, I’m supposed to stay here with you.  I have a project that I’m supposed to finish with Darius.  He can’t do it by himself, he’ll forget something and then it’ll be ruined.  And his nameday is coming up and I’m supposed to be there when he accepts his colony markings.  Mya and her mom were going to take me out shopping for a dress; you know I don’t have anything decent anymore.  I can’t leave.  I have to stay here, people _need_ me here.”

 

Grace knew that she was rambling and didn’t care.  This was completely unfair.

 

“Grace,” Char’s voice had a rare soft quality that usually made her feel better, but right now it had the opposite effect.  “I promised you that nobody would take you away from me.  I’m not breaking that promise.  I will come see you all of the time and, even if Garrus and I have to break into the school and kidnap you, you will get to come home as well.  However, you are so smart and strong and gifted, that you need to have teachers who are just as gifted to help you.  This is not a punishment and if anyone at the school does anything, and I do mean anything, that you feel is wrong … then you tell me and I’ll take care of it.”

 

Grace didn’t respond, her mouth had decided to stop working, so she just sat there and looked at her hands.

 

“I’m sorry I haven’t been over for a while.”  Garrus’ voice was a soft rumble beside her.  “But I promise that I’m not leaving now.  If Charlie will let me, I’ll come with her and we’ll visit you together.  And, just in case they don’t let you have the extranet, I’ll make sure I bring over a copy of that month’s ‘Rend of Time’.”

 

“Did you watch the last season?”  Grace couldn’t help the excitement that slipped into her voice.

 

“Of course, spirits, it was so good.  I thought they were actually killing off the Professor this time.”

 

Char made a snorting noise.  “I can’t believe you guys watch that.  ‘Doctor Who’ was _so_ much better.  The Professor is a hack.”

 

“The graphics on that show almost made my visor give up its spirit.”  The retort from Garrus had them all giggling for a brief moment.

 

“Can we still have my Bat Mitzvah?”  Grace hazarded after the laughing had died off.

 

“Of course, I can probably claim some ‘freedom of religion’ farkakte and get you to Earth.  Just act as Jewish as possible while you’re there to really sell it.”  Char gave Grace a playful nudge of her shoulder.

 

Garrus snorted.  “So she should be bitchy, tell really bad jokes, and if anyone gets too close she should hit them?”

 

“Why is she going undercover as you?”  Charlie’s retort was quick and dry.

 

There was a brief moment of silence as the adults looked at each other.  “Well played.”  Garrus conceded.

 

Grace felt so at ease with the banter.  She had missed them acting like this around her.  She had missed the competiveness that the two always exhibited with each other.  It didn’t matter what they were doing, it was always a competition.  It might look mean-spirited on the outside, but Grace knew better.  Though she had never been able to figure out what had caused the rift in the past few months.  Both adults felt guilty over something, but it almost felt like a completely different kind of guilt for the two.  It didn’t really matter now; they were making jokes which meant they had made up.

 

The pair stayed for a while and the conversation slipped between party plans and quietly talking about the horrible day.  It felt natural and easy.  When they finally left, Char promised that the bindings wouldn’t be put on her again.  Grace was left alone again, but at least she knew now that it was only temporary.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter was a little late again. Important things are important to get right. 
> 
> Also, the next chapter's contents ... scare me a little. This will either be perceived as a growth moment for Charlie or you will all hate her. I'm hoping it's the first.


	23. Chapter 23

* * *

 

Garrus carried her back to her room and put her back in bed.  Charlie was starting to believe that she had somehow managed to bypass the “talk” and they had gone straight back to being friends.

 

“Charlotte, we need to talk.”  Garrus sighed as he took a seat in a chair next to her.

_Shit._

 

“Okay.”  She replied.  Her voice was so quiet that she could barely hear it.

 

“I’m sorry that I have been avoiding you.”

_Wait, why is_ he _sorry?_

 

Charlie remained silent, because she did not want to have this conversation.  The door was only a few feet away and she eyed it while wondering how far her legs would take her.

 

Garrus sighed with impatience at her continued silence.  “Look, I’m pretty sure that we did some … stuff that night.  I don’t really remember anything, but I’ve felt really embarrassed and I didn’t know what to say to you.  So, I’m sorry.  I should have just talked to you about it.”

_He doesn’t remember.  Should I tell him?_

_Why would you tell him, are an idiot?  Look, he’s giving you an out.  Take it!_

 

“Nothing happened that night.”  Charlie said the words too quickly.  “I mean, I was sober enough to remember everything.  We just got drunk and fell asleep on the couch.  I figured that you didn’t want to pay up on the deal we made and that’s why you’ve been ignoring me.”

_Please don’t call me on the lie. / Please don’t call me on the lie. / Please don’t call me on the lie._

 

“Really?”  Garrus abruptly started laughing and looked extremely relieved.  “Oh thank the spirits, I thought I had kissed you or something.  I’ve been so worried.  I woke up the next morning and I tasted and smelled like you and I presumed the worst.”

 

Charlie wracked her brain for a possible reason.  “Well you really wanted to try my scotch ...”

 

Garrus snapped the pads of his fingers together.  “That explains it.  Well I guess that’s that then.  Back to friends?”

 

He held out a hand to Charlie, who gladly accepted it.  The past several months had been a special kind of hell for her and she desperately wanted her friend back.  Even if she felt like a villain for not telling the truth.

 

“So you really thought I was just ignoring you so I didn’t have to pay for lunch?”

 

“Uh, no, but I don’t know … I’m not really good at the whole … talking thing.”  As awkward as the sentence was, it was the truth.

 

Garrus laughed in her face and retorted.  “You talk so much that you should be a master at it by now.”  He smugly noted Charlie’s glare and added.  “I’ll accept that though.  I’m just glad we’re talking again.  I’ll come by and see you later.”

 

With that he was gone and Charlie was left alone with her traitorous thoughts. 

 

She really didn’t want to tell him the truth, so she dug her hole a little deeper and lied.

 

* * *

 

 

**9 months ago – Charlie’s apartment**

 

“That movie was … awful.”

 

“What are you ‘alking bout?  This is a classic.”  Garrus’ words were slurred and he was relying on his exaggerated arm movements to get the point across.

 

“We didn’t even see her face!  I wanted to see a quarian face.  If I had paid money for this, I’d ask for it back.”  Charlie was drunk enough to be extremely loud and if she had had to walk around … it probably wouldn’t have gone very well, but she was in control of her actions.

 

“That’s the whole point!  He doesn’t need to see her … um … face.”

 

“Well that’s really romantic.  How are they are going to kiss, let alone fuck?”  She scoffed.

 

“Not e’erything is ‘bout sex.  And kissing is gross.”  Garrus made a disgusted face at the human and asari ritual.

 

“No it’s not!  It’s awesome.  Come here.” 

 

Charlie was drunk enough to think that this was a fantastic idea, even though sober Charlie would later regret it.  She yanked Garrus’ cowl down and pressed her lips against his mouth plates.  Charlie was a little stymied by the hard surface, but managed to wriggle her tongue between them and found his.  God, he tasted so smoky sweet.  Garrus’ arms, which had been flailing about in surprise, wrapped around her body.  His talons softly scrapped along her back.

 

This was not what Charlie had planned when she kissed him.  It was supposed to be a joke.  Garrus was supposed to push her off and then they were going to laugh about it.  But this … this was different and Charlie was suddenly and painfully aware that she hadn’t been this intimate with another person in such a long time.  It wouldn’t be so bad if they did something, right?  It didn’t have to go past the night and she had had her fair share of drunken trysts.  Charlie knew the drill, don’t ever talk about it and pretend everything is normal.  Maybe it happens again, maybe it doesn’t.

 

Garrus stopped kissing her, but didn’t move away.  Instead he dipped his head down to her neck and started nibbling her gently on the skin. 

 

“Cecilia, why are you so soft?”

 

Charlie clearly heard the words.  Garrus was drunk enough to mistake her for his ex-lover.  She should stop him; she should not take advantage of his inebriated condition.  This was extremely wrong. 

 

But his arms, even as sharp pointed as they were, felt so good around her.  Someone giving her the physical attention that she hadn’t even been aware that she was missing, Charlie wasn’t even sure that she could pull herself away.  It was Garrus though, her absolute best friend, and with a great effort that her body protested; Charlie tore herself away from him.

 

“No, please don’t go away.”  He pleaded with her.  The quiet keening quality eked back into his tone.

 

Charlie knew she had to leave and get away from him, but when his arms pulled her gently back … she followed.  He pulled her into his lap and resumed his delicate attentions to her neck and shoulder.  This was definitely wrong; Charlie had never even considered Garrus as a potential lover.  It was true that she was lonely, but this was the equivalent of rape, right?  No, she was a cop and she knew that this really bad and she should stop this right now.

 

Her mind was made up, but her hands and mouth were treasonous and marked their own trail up and down the side Garrus’ face, neck, and fringe.  Charlie never let their faces go any further than the shoulders and hands were only allowed above the waist, but even with her rules she still felt like a monster.  However, she was a monster who just wanted to be held and loved for one night.  It was just one night.

 

In the morning when Garrus looked so scared and fled the apartment, Charlie locked herself in her room and cried.  She had fucked up everything.  It was her fault and she was a monster.  Every time he dodged her in the halls at work or refused to meet her gaze or quickly left the room when she entered, that was her penance.  Charlie didn’t know how to make it right or if Garrus would ever forgive her, but if he never did … then that was what she deserved.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, that was a short chapter. Mostly because what happens next is kinda long and I didn't want to detract from this with the next bit. I struggled with this chapter, because I wasn't sure how it would be received by readers. But here it is anyways. I might post the next chapter early, since this one is my shortest one to date. 
> 
> Also I would like to say I love you to the two readers who left me so truly lovely comments. Melgonzo and Meemz, you are both sexy people. Internet hugs all around!


	24. Chapter 24

**Present day -- Huerta Memorial Hospital**

 

Emily Wong was pacing outside of the hospital room.  A large turian dressed in a C-Sec uniform had just passed her and had been carrying an extremely underdressed woman.  When the pair disappeared into Nacht’s room, Emily was surprised to say the least.  This woman was Nacht?  Emily had been expecting the classic stoic gruffness that was typical of cop and military types.  What kind of woman traipses around a public hospital in a short dressing gown in the arms of a turian?  This was definitely going to be interesting.

 

When the turian reappeared he turned to leave, but instead rounded on Wong.  He was extremely tall, even for a turian.  However, even Emily’s short tenure on the station had been long enough to, at least, not look frightened by seven and half feet of plated turian.

 

“Are you the reporter, Emily Wong?”  His tone wasn’t quite as harsh as she had been expecting and she was surprised by the charismatic air with which he spoke the words.

 

“Yes, I am?  And you are …?”

 

“Detective Garrus Vakarian.”  The detective held a hand out for her to take and he had a surprising delicate yet firm grip.  Exactly the right amount of pressure.  Emily was starting to wonder whether she should skip the Nacht interview and get one with him instead.  Vakarian definitely seemed full of surprises.

 

“Are those Officer Nacht’s clothes?  Would you mind if I check and make sure they brought the right size for her?  She is very particular about such things and I would hate to have you get off on the wrong foot by such a careless blunder.”  The extreme sincerity threw Emily for a second, but she willingly gave him the suit on the hanger.  Vakarian checked the tags for the size and then handed them back to her.

 

“All correct.  I really must be leaving, Ms. Wong, but good luck on the interview.”  He took her hand again and in a quick fluid motion bowed his and placed his lip plates briefly against her skin.  And then he was turning around and he was gone. 

 

Wong stood there for a moment longer.  Her face was an extremely unprofessional shade of bright pink and she had to compose herself before following the swarm of doctors into Nacht’s room.

 

The scene that was revealed in the room almost made Emily leave again so that she could laugh loudly in the hall.  Nacht was surrounded by doctors and nurses who were each yelling different things at her.  Apparently, Nacht was not supposed to have left the room and had succeeded in rearranging her insides.  Nothing life threatening and it was all easily correctable, but still damaging.  That wasn’t very funny though, what threatened to bring laughter from Emily was Nacht’s face.  She was pouting.  A very childlike pout, complete with her arms crossed and lower lip stuck out.  How was this woman part of C-Sec, let alone a detective?

 

Eventually the doctors finished their machinations and pronounced Nacht fit for the interview.

 

“Excuse me?  Right now?”  Nacht’s voice was a little deeper than she would have guessed and the emphasis on the syllables struck Emily as familiar and foreign.  She had heard this accent, but she couldn’t quite place it.

 

“Yes, right now.”  She called from the door.

 

The sea of hospital staff parted to fully reveal Nacht to Emily.  She stood there awkwardly with her camera waiting on staff to leave.  Emily took the moment to study Nacht’s features.  She guessed that the woman was considerably taller than she appeared propped up in bed, six feet maybe.  Yes, it would be a good idea to keep her sitting down.  Human audiences will sympathize better with a weak looking cop.  Her face was oval shaped and seemed to be composed of large features.  Emily wondered if the woman was gorgeous or hideous, because she was definitely not pretty.  Pretty people look pretty in most lights and expressions.  This woman with her black curls sticking up haphazardly around her head and extremely large eyes and crooked nose was not pretty.  Between the scars that canyoned Nacht’s face, shoulders, and arms and the well-defined musculature, Emily wondered if the woman was actually just terrifying.  But the eyes held the light of femininity and Emily realized that the woman could either be gorgeous or terrifying depending on her mood.  Exotic or dangerous.

 

“Officer Nacht or should I say Detective Nacht?”  Emily gave Charlie a lopsided grin.

 

“I’m told I’m now Detective Nacht, but Charlie is just fine.  I’m a little underdressed for an interview.  While I’m sure that Citadel would just love to get a peek at my naughty bits, I’m not sure how that furthers human interests.”  Charlie glanced that the ceiling and chuckled.  “Never mind I just answered my own question.”

 

Damn, the accent was still eluding her, but she was narrowing it down.  Definitely North American, but maybe it was somewhere in New York or New Jersey area?

 

“Actually I have the top half of your uniform with me.  I would rather have a shot of you in the bed, if that’s alright.  It sells the whole injured cop image.”

 

Charlie shrugged.  “Oy, why not?  I actually am an injured cop.”

 

Emily was helping Nacht get dressed when she realized where she had heard that accent before.  It was an old accent, really old.  When Emily had been in journalism school and she had taken a film class.  The class was mostly a joke, the students would sit in the hall and watch old movies and then write short critiques on them.  Emily had taken it as an easy A.  The stated purpose of the class was to understand the culture of the period through their comedy.  In some of the older films from the 20th and early 21st century there had been a character archetype that would often appear and Charlie sounded like a watered down version of that.  Like in the old Mel Brooks comedies.  But it was odd, because that accent didn’t really exist anymore.  Who was this woman?

 

“Before we start I would like to get some specifics.  You’re Emily Wong?”  Charlie interrupted her thoughts.

 

“I am.”

 

“What kind of questions are you going to be asking me?”

 

“Well where is the fun in that?”  Wong said with a cheeky grin. 

 

“The kind of fun that doesn’t end with me breaking your camera.”  Charlie reached into the coat pocket and gave a soft chuckle.  “Let me guess, you ran into Detective Vakarian in the hall?”

 

Emily frowned at her.  “Yes.”

 

Charlie smiled and fitted a device on her left arm.  “I assumed as much.  He doesn’t like me going into the field unarmed.”

 

She activated the omni-tool and deftly skated her fingers across the orange glow.  “Now, if you decide that you want this interview to be a pleasant experience, then we will both walk away happy.  However, if you start asking me questions that are aggressive or purposefully misleading, then you can leave but your camera doesn’t.  Oh and don’t think that the additional camera in your brooch is going to help you either.”

 

Emily blinked at her several times before snorting under her breath.  “I think I understand why you weren’t made a detective till now.  Actually now I’m concerned as to why you were ever made a detective.”

 

“Clearly because I’m a lovely and charming woman.”  Charlie dryly responded.  “Now, tell me you what you want to get out of this interview.  You must have an agenda.”

 

Well, this isn’t what she had expected, at all.  Emily looked at Charlie and was confused at how a person can make humor and candor intimidating, it worked though.

 

“Well this isn’t how I like to start, but fine.  I want you to tell me about working for C-Sec.  I understand that you are probably under orders to say that it’s all cotton candy fields and flowers, but I would like something meatier than that.  I also want to discuss the bombing with you and that mission with Spectre Kryik.  Anything else you would like to add that would make you seem more … human, would be appreciated.”

 

Charlie tilted her head to the side as if considering this, and then nodded her head.  “Alright I can do that.  Make sure you ask me about my adopted daughter I rescued from Mindoir.  She’s a biotic.”

 

Emily’s eyes widened with hunger.  “And you want to talk about that?”

 

“Oh yes, I would _love_ to talk about her.”

 

The interview took two and half hours and was one of the best interviews Emily had ever given.  Charlie was able to go into great detail on the missions without actually saying anything inappropriate.  The woman did seem to have an agenda though and was very good at directing the conversation towards that purpose.  However, Emily was perfectly willing to discuss turian-human race relations and the inappropriate bias against human biotics.  This wouldn’t necessarily play well with a crowd, but Emily could see awards dancing in her eyes. 

 

Emily did notice that whenever she tried to direct the conversation towards Charlie’s past, the woman deftly steered away from the topic.  This intrigued Emily, but she really didn’t want to risk damaging the interview.  There was little doubt that the woman would make good on her threat.

 

* * *

 

 

It was walking into the empty apartment, which truly made everything real for her.  Charlie had been in the apartment by herself before, but it was different knowing the Grace wasn’t somewhere in the building and wasn’t going to come home.  Charlie carefully blanked her mind of thoughts and emotions and she woodenly set to packing Grace’s things for her.  She debated over whether to pack the keyboard Charlie had given Grace last year for her birthday.  The girl almost never played with it and it was rather large.  In the end, she put it in the pile to bring to the docks, simply because it amused her to make the Alliance’s job that much harder. 

 

It took a while to pack Grace’s possessions, to grimly sort through which items the girl would need and which she would want.  It took a while, but not long enough.  Before too long she was sitting alone on the porch smoking an Ignis and pondering which problem to tackle next. 

 

Charlie settled on figuring out what Bill’s revelations meant, because if she was going to think about Garrus … she’d need a drink.

 

First was he just a giant liar and simply a crazy man?  Charlie dismissed this immediately.  Crazy?  Yes.  A liar?  No.  There were just too many things that he knew that he shouldn’t.  Charlie had done some extensive research a while ago on her time period.  Pretty much everything was the same.  Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht had been born to a Rachel Mariah Nacht in 1987.  There wasn’t a lot of information on that Charlotte, but she had graduated high school and college.  She had married Justin and had two children.  It was so odd.  Everything she remembered had happened.  Her mother had … died at the same time, in 2002 when Charlie was only fifteen.  She couldn’t tell if that Charlotte had also been injured, like she had been, because it all happened so long ago, but everything seemed to be exact.  It had been painful to see what could have been.  The only real difference was that Mass Effect had not been made.  BioWare existed, but the game did not exist in this universe. 

 

So Bill wasn’t a liar, which made some of his other predictions … odd.  The largest discrepancy was that no AI had existed in his games.  Charlie really wished that she knew who he had fought during the whole first game, if it wasn’t the geth.  There was also the problem that he hadn’t had EDI.  She was such a large portion of the second game.  The thought occurred to her again that he had mentioned that he had developed an AI that acted like a VI and the Alliance had it.

_What if he created EDI?_

_But that would mean that the game I played in my universe included him and that would … really make my head hurt._

_Oh, I’m sorry it’s so hard for you._

_Jackass._

 

The implications were very disconcerting.  Was she going to be included in some other parallel universe game?  No, that was stupid.  This was really happening.  It was not a game.

 

Existential problems aside, Bill had actually given her some good information as well.  Now Charlie could count on the events of the first game starting sometime in 2183 and she could find Shepard.  Charlie had definitely heard of the Butcher of Torfan, that was still making the rounds on the news.  She thought that she may have chosen that as the background for her Shepard, when she played the games, but it was a very long time ago.    

 

A little research into this universe’s Shepard revealed that she was a consummate soldier type.  Her skills were non-biotic and largely non-technical.  Janice Shepard was much more likely to kill everyone and maybe ask questions about why later.  That was … troubling.  Especially considering everything the woman was going to have to accomplish in the future. 

 

The last bit of information was more annoying than helpful.  Apparently everyone had singled Charlie out for potential spectre training.  Charlie really did not want to become a spectre.  Not because she was afraid of the challenge, but because she could be a little crazy sometimes and she leaned heavily on rules to keep her from doing something unwise.  If she was suddenly given the ability to thumb her nose at the rules and do what she felt needed to be done; well that could, and probably would, end horribly.  No, she had to make sure that Shepard got the endorsement and she was left alone in C-Sec.

 

Charlie spent the next few days pouring over her old notes and comparing them with what Bill told her.  She had another month of leave from C-Sec and so Charlie decided to spend the time working on the puzzle and ignoring everyone and everything else.

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie Nacht had lied to him.  Garrus wasn’t a fool and Charlie was a truly horrendous liar.  It bothered him that she lied, but it was worse not knowing what she had lied about.  Garrus decided to assume that he had done some things with her that night, but that she wanted to forget about it.  That didn’t feel like the normal Charlie he knew.  His Charlie loved to talk about things and she could talk them to death.  However if she was willing to move on and be friends again, Garrus was completely on board that train.  That night would just become a big mistake and neither of them would ever mention it again.

 

What was bothering Garrus, was that Charlie had not called him once since getting home from the hospital a week ago.  He had tried calling her and she didn’t pick up.  Charlie hadn’t even responded to his messages.  Clearly she was upset, as she had every right to be, because Grace was gone.  Garrus knew from many past experiences that Charlie did not take loss well. 

 

So Garrus found himself in front of Charlie’s apartment door.  He didn’t have much of a plan, but it was the best one he could come up with.   He considered just walking in, like he normally would, but opted for ringing the comm. bell.

 

A minute later the door opened and a blur shot out of the entrance and pinned him to the wall.  Once Garrus was able to focus on the woman he saw that she was a very bedraggled Charlie with a pistol pointed at his head.

 

“Charlie.”

 

Charlie eyes focused and she withdrew the weapon and let him go.  “Garrus.”  Her voice was as tired as she looked.

 

Garrus pulled himself up straight and tried to regain some of the swagger in his stance.  “Can I come in?”

 

Charlie looked into the apartment with a wary glance and finally said.  “Sure.  You could have called first.”

 

“I did.  Several times in fact.” 

 

Charlie mumbled something about muting her omni-tool and Garrus slipped into the apartment.  The first thing he noticed was the overpowering smell of stale cigarettes.  Apparently Charlie had started smoking the house.  A glance at Charlie revealed her pulling a lit cigarette out of an ash tray to continue smoking it.  The living room and the kitchen were a disaster, Garrus had no idea how she had managed to let everything get so filthy in only a week of living alone.  The couch looked like Charlie had been spending most of her time and nights on it.  There were data pads, tools, and assorted clutter circled around the piece of furniture like a technical bomb had been dropped on it.

 

Charlie sat down heavily on a cushion and threw a pack of Ignis at him. 

 

“Charlie, you don’t smoke in the house.”

 

“I didn’t, but I guess it doesn’t matter now.”  She said with a shrug.

 

Garrus took a cigarette out and lit it.  “You’ll lose the deposit.”

 

She gave him a wry glare.  “My daughter and I were just kidnapped from this complex last week.  No alarms were triggered and no footage of the event.  They should be glad I’m not suing them.”

 

“Not to nitpick your plan, but I don’t think that’ll actually work.”

 

“I get myself a good volus lawyer and it will definitely work.”

 

Charlie picked up a data pad and stared furiously at it.  “Why are you here?  I’m a little busy.”

 

Garrus tried not to take offense at her tone.  He had never seen her like this; Charlie was acting paranoid and sloppy.  Neither of these were traits she normally exhibited.

 

“I thought I’d get you out of here.  Maybe talk or something?  We are supposed to be friends again.”

 

Charlie didn’t look up at him.  “I can’t I’m busy, maybe another time.”

 

Garrus stood there awkwardly in the apartment for a moment.  Then it occurred to him how to make Charlie come out. 

 

“Have you been down to the Armax Arena lately?”  He asked casually.

_Take the bait, Charlotte._

 

“No.  I think the last time I was there was with you, actually.”  She took the bait, but still didn’t look up.

 

“Oh, then I guess you don’t know that I have beaten your score?”

 

Charlie gave the briefest of glances towards him.  “Single player or doubles?”

 

He had her now.  “Doubles.  Team score, in fact.”

 

“Who?”  Charlie’s voice was low and dangerous, exactly what he was hoping for.

 

Garrus leaned on the counter and took a slow drag.  “Oh, you probably wouldn’t know her, works as a receptionist at the office.  Not very impressive, but _she_ can point a gun the right way.”

 

Charlie stood up and abruptly walked towards the bedroom.  At the doorway, she stopped and looked at him.  “I know you’re lying to me, but I’ll take the hint and come out.  I’m kind of gross though, so I’m taking a shower first.”

 

Garrus nodded at her and waited till she left.  As soon as her heard the water start to run, he quickly picked up the room.  He glanced at the pads she had been working on, but they were all locked to tampering.  He probably could have unlocked them and looked anyways, but Charlie had a right to her privacy.  She may have infuriated him from time to time, but he still respected her secrets.

 

When he heard the bedroom door start to open, he quickly took a seat on the couch and tried to look as nonchalant as possible.  Charlie looked around the clean room and sighed.  She was dressed in her usual jeans and black sleeveless tank top.  After some digging in a drawer she adorned her usual omni-glasses.

 

“I thought yours were broken?”

 

She shrugged and replied, “I always have a backup.”

 

Charlie still seemed out of sorts, but Garrus felt confident that he could bring her back.  There was a glint of metal around her neck and he smiled when he realized it was the necklace he had given her.  Yes, he could definitely make Charlie right again.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all of you lovely and sexy beasts. I have brought you another chapter. So, I know that Charlie isn't everyone's favorite person right now, but, at least, Garrus is well aware that she was lying to him. I mean, come on he's a detective and Charlie is a terrible liar. 
> 
> Just in case anyone forgot, yes, Charlie does have a slight New York Yiddish accent. It's not very strong, but it comes out when she flustered or joking. And as accents are in constant flux, it is kind of a dead accent at this point in time. I can totally cite this if anyone doubts me. I do research into the oddest of things. I might be crazy. Maybe ... yes ... ok I'm definitely crazy.


	25. Chapter 25

At the Armax Arena, Garrus was soon coming to the realization that he was mistaken.  Charlie had not killed a single batarian enemy.  She hadn’t been injured either, but she was clearly not trying to win.  Garrus was getting extremely frustrated with her performance.  So he started giving all of the enemies she was focusing on headshots.  Usually, this was the point where she would call him a “kill stealer” and threaten him with violence, but she didn’t.

 

“You’re going to have to do better than that, Charlie.”  He taunted.

 

“Okay,” Was her lackluster response.

 

What was wrong with her?  The entire trip here, he had tried to engage her and she had just ignored him.  Occasionally, he caught her pained glances at him.  What had he done to her?  Had he done something really bad that night months ago?  Garrus knew she would never tell him what was wrong unless he was able to draw her out and this was usually the best way to do that, by appealing to her competitive nature.  Spirits, she was usually more competitive than he was. 

 

“You did really well.”  Charlie gave him a weak smile after the round was over, that Garrus immediately hated.  Who was the meek stranger and what had she done with his Charlie?

 

“You want to go again?”  Garrus asked hoping for a positive response.

 

“No, I think I’m good for now.” 

 

Charlie took off her helmet and shook her loose curls out.  She hadn’t even broken a sweat.

 

In the lobby, there were a few young men standing around in gear.  Clearly they had the next turn in the room.

 

“Well lil’ darlin’ that’s not very good score.  This your first time?”  One of the men asked Charlie.  Garrus noted that he was tall and broad shouldered, definitely the type of human male that was supposed to be attractive. 

_This is going to be interesting.  I might have to hold Charlie back from killing this man, but that might be a nice change of pace from this meek Charlie I brought with me._

 

“Actually, yes it is.”  Garrus looked down at Charlie sharply.  She had drawn her shoulders in and had shifted the shotgun in her hand so that she was holding it loosely and unprofessionally at her side.  Though it was her voice that was the most shocking, she had pitched her voice up and was almost speaking shyly and _sweetly._  

 

“I think I did alright though.  At least I didn’t die _this_ time, right?”  She continued.  “I’m trying to get better.  I think I hit some of them.  Whoops!”  Garrus watched as she dropped her shotgun and let the human male pick it up for her.

 

“Good thing you weren’t using live ammo, so what’s your name?”  The man put Charlie’s gun on a table and sidled up to get closer to her. 

 

“Elizabeth, what’s yours?”  Since when had she started using her middle name?  Garrus was having a difficult time keeping up with her. 

 

“Lieutenant Daniels, Alliance Navy.”

 

“A real Lieutenant?  I’ve never met a Lieutenant before.”  Then she giggled.  Garrus had heard Charlie laugh in a multitude of ways in the past, usually at her own jokes or at another’s expense.  But giggle?  No, Garrus had definitely never heard that noise come from his friend.  How was Daniels buying this terrible façade?

 

Daniels motioned towards the people behind him.  “Actually, we’re all in the Navy.  So what were you doing in there with this … turian?”

 

The way he said that almost elicited a growl from Garrus, but he stopped himself when he noted the glitter in Charlie’s eyes and the subtle shift of her smile to a slightly evil grin.

 

“This is my friend, Garrus.  He was trying to show me how to properly use a gun, but I’m still no good at it.”  She pouted, and then lit her face up as if an idea had just occurred to her.  “Maybe if some big strong Alliance soldiers could show me, then I would understand.”  Garrus noted the way Charlie ran her hand up and down the soldier’s arm, as if testing the muscle corded there.

 

“Oh, well I’m sure we could do that.  What did you have in mind?”  Daniels managed to stammer out.

 

“Why don’t I just go ask Mr. Ellocious if this can be a two-team game, you strong men against us?  I mean we’ll probably lose, but then it’ll be fun.  We could play for a round of drinks?”

 

“Um, are you sure that’s fair?  I mean we have a biotic with us and it’s only the two of you?”  Daniels looked over Charlie’s form as if expecting to find another squad member hidden there.

 

This was when Garrus realized that Charlie looked rather unassuming in her black, form-fitting, light armor suit.  The suit was standard gaming suite armor that would shut down any limb that had been hit.  However, it was very tight and seemed to hide the fact that Charlie was in excellent shape and a force to be reckoned with even without a weapon.  In the suit, she could have just been any other slender human female and that almost made Garrus laugh out loud.

 

Charlie put her finger on her lip as if contemplating his words.  “Well to make it fair, what if we are allowed to use tech abilities.  Garrus can do a really cool thing where he makes your shields disappear?  What is it called?” 

 

Garrus couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face at the completely innocent look Charlie was wearing as she gazed up at him.  “An Overload?”

 

“I guess that’s okay, then.  Sure you two can use tech against us.  Kay is our only biotic, but he’s really good.”

 

The second he said that the two of them could use tech abilities, Garrus noticed that Charlie’s fingers started working furiously at her side.  He had seen this enough to know that she was remotely accessing her omni-glasses. 

 

“Oh goody, is this your helmet?”  Charlie picked up the helmet sitting on the table and turned it over, while making intriguing noises.  “It’s very nice.  I’ll go check with Mr. Ellocious at the front desk and change the queue on the room.  You did agree that we’re playing for drinks, right?”

 

“Of course.”  Daniels boldly ran a hand down Charlie’s backside and Garrus braced himself, in case she retaliated.  She didn’t, in fact she flashed the Lieutenant a seductive smile.

 

Garrus was not exactly sure what Charlie was up to, but she was acting like her old self and that made him feel so much better.  She had clearly found a game and was playing it.  Garrus spent the time she was gone by checking their equipment.  None of the soldiers spoke to him, but he did note their appearances.  They were all fairly young and arrogant, except for the one they pointed out as the biotic.  He seemed out of place, not just in age as he was a few years older than the rest, but also in manner.  Kay was standing separate from the rest of the group and seemed a little more cautious than the rest.  He was also suspiciously watching Garrus, as if he suspected that this was a trap.

 

Charlie came bouncing back and proclaimed the match all set.  Daniels graciously let them go into the large room first, since they were woefully outnumbered by the six soldiers.  Once inside, Garrus turned to Charlie.

 

“So, what’s the plan?”

 

“To kick their smug asses.”  Charlie had flicked open her omni-tool and was now furiously working on … something.  “I need you to hack into the lights.  Don’t worry I told the clerk what we’re doing.  He okayed it, provided we put everything back when we’re done.”

 

“We’re cheating?”  Garrus opened his tool anyways and went to work on the lights.

 

Charlie let out an exasperated sigh.  “It’s not cheating. I asked the _Lieutenant_ if I could use any tech skills and he said yes.  If he didn’t want something like this to happen, then I’m sure he would have mentioned it.”

 

Garrus snorted, “I’m sure he would love to get you alone in the dark.”

 

Charlie didn’t look up, but did punch him solidly in the arm.  Garrus wondered what it said about their relationship that physical violence made him feel better.

 

“So, if I’m working on the lights … what are you doing?”

 

Charlie giggled, but not the falsely sweet one from before, this one was pure Nacht.  Vicious and disconcerting. “I hacked into their speakers and right now I am setting up a program that will blast extremely loud music, of my choice, into their headsets.  I completely bypassed their radios and unless they have a very good tech expert with them … they’re stuck listening to my sweet ass jams.  It would even take me a while to completely back out of their system.  Personally, if I were them I would shut down the whole thing and reboot from system, but they can’t do that in the field.”

 

“So our plan, which is totally not cheating, is to blind and deafen them?”  Garrus asked dryly.

 

“Precisely.  If you have a problem with my methods and don’t want to put some Alliance assholes in their place, then say so now.”

 

Garrus finished with the lights and turned to Charlie.  “Oh I don’t have a problem with this at all.  In fact, this might be the greatest game we’ve pulled together.”

 

Charlie gave him a wry grin out of the corner of her mouth.  “Better than the ‘fight’ we had in front of last year’s recruits?”

 

Garrus chuckled at the memory.  They had spent over a month choreographing the twenty minute “fight”.  It was the perfect blend of theatrics.  Charlie did fantastical flips and twirls about him and he kicked and threw her across the room.  None of the blows actually hit them, as it was staged, but they had included props and fake blood.  By the end, they had both “died” and the recruits were horrified at the spectacle.  It was absolutely worth all of the preparation and clean up.

 

“Even better,” he responded with complete sincerity.

 

Garrus and Charlie took careful positions around the room.  The room was multi leveled and very large, with many raised platforms and fantastic places for cover.  Garrus took up a high position in the back of the room as a sniper perch.  There was a better place available, but it was the obvious spot to look for a sniper and this one had better access to the floor.  As Garrus did not like to stay in one place for too long, this was definitely ideal.  Charlie took up a loose position in the middle of the room.  Her tactic was to move and move frequently.  She wasn’t stealthy, but she didn’t need to be as she hit hard and hit fast. 

 

When the crew of seven soldiers sauntered into the room, both of them were completely out of sight.  Charlie waited until the Alliance soldiers spread out a bit before giving Garrus the signal to hit the lights.  Through his visor, Garrus could see the soldiers start to panic and bring up their omni-tools.  Charlie had sneaked around to the closest soldier and was about to tackle him from behind, when she hit the music.

 

The scene that unfolded was hilarious.  The soldiers grabbed their helmets, but couldn’t remove them as they would auto-lock in place as soon as the door shut.  Charlie quickly disarmed the first soldier, shot him in the legs and arms to prevent him from moving, and slid the guns across the room.

 

They were purposefully not supposed to kill them, the fun was to disarm them and leave them helpless.  Garrus was sure that if Charlie could have, she would have stripped them down as well.

 

“Now I hope all of you boys are enjoying my music.  I picked it out especially for you.”  Garrus heard Charlie announce into the radio.  “I’m already up by one on you though, so I would regroup for a better attack if I were you.  Otherwise, it’s just not fair.”

 

Garrus saw that the men seemed to have gotten their bearing and had flashlights on their omni-tools.  Charlie climbed onto one of pillars and peered over the side of it.

 

“What do you see, Charlie?”  Garrus asked on their private channel.

 

“The biotic hasn’t lit up, yet.  I’ve got five of them huddled together over here.  You see the sixth?”

 

“Got him.”

 

Garrus lined up the shot on the wayward soldier and skillfully shot the man in all four limbs.  It was kind of an amazing shot to precisely hit a flailing man from across a room, especially with a quick reload needed.  However, Garrus was kind of awesome.

 

Meanwhile, Charlie had to guess at which man was not the biotic.  With a wild stab in the dark she jumped on the man who was the easiest to pull away from the others.  She angled her descent to place her hands on the back of his shoulders, to throw him off balance, and roll with him away from his companions.  In the scuffle that followed he managed to get a few rounds off with his assault rifle, but she easily avoided the fire.  Charlie could, after all, see in the dark with her omni-glasses.  Thankfully, the tinted glass on her helmet hid the orange glow.  The soldier managed to get the shotgun away from her, but she still had a pistol and he was easily disabled.

 

“That’s three for us and none for you.  What’s wrong?  I thought you were going to teach me how to fight?  After all I’m just a little girl.”  Charlie mocked them after she had skipped back into cover.

 

“I’m moving up.  I don’t have a shot and you’re having all of the fun down there.”  Garrus laughed into their channel.

 

“Roger that.  I’ve still got no biotic.  He’s very good if he isn’t taking my bait.”

 

“Don’t come from up high this time.  They’re looking for that now.  I’ve got an idea.  Come around to my position.”

 

His plan as he quickly told Charlie, was to slip around the side of the cover the soldiers were using.  Charlie would shimmy out and latch onto the legs of the nearest man and Garrus would yank them both back.  It was crazy and foolish, and absolutely fun.  Obviously it was not a tactic to be used in any other situation, but for this type of tomfoolery … it was perfect. 

 

Garrus could hear Charlie giggling as he pulled her backwards with her prize.  The man would probably have a sizable bruise on his backside tomorrow.  The entire maneuver happened so quickly that Garrus and Charlie were able to disable him and make off with his weapons before he comrades followed after the kidnapped soldier. 

 

Laughing and slightly out of breath, the pair watched the last two soldiers duck behind a different piece of cover. 

 

After they composed themselves, Garrus said, “Well either he’s not a biotic or he’s playing it safe.  Any ideas?”

 

Charlie glared at him through her helmet.  “I’m not the planner.  My plans consist of going over there, picking a fight, and hoping I can make it out in one piece.  Got anymore brilliant schemes?”

 

“No, not really.  We have to split them up if we’re going to continue to non-lethally disarm them.  How about you ‘accidentally’ get seen by one of them and I’ll pick off the other one.”

 

“That would work if one of them wasn’t a biotic.”

 

In the end, they decided to go ahead with the loose plan.  Mostly because they had to do something and it was the best idea they had between them. 

 

Charlie crept over to the men and Garrus stayed in the dark shadows ready to strike.  She let herself be seen as she darted through the soldiers’ flashlight.  The soldier on the right spotted her and sent an arc of waist high rifle fire in the direction she was moving.  Barely managing to dodge the spray of fire, she skidded to a halt behind a low piece of cover.

 

This was when Garrus saw the biotic.  A bright blue light engulfed the man who had been firing at Charlie and he waved his arm out in her hidden direction.  That was odd, because there was no way the man could see Charlie.  Nothing happened for a few seconds after the arm movement and Garrus was starting to shift out of cover to grab the biotic’s companion.  However the biotic’s head snapped to look directly at Charlie through the darkened room.  Garrus was about to shout a warning to her, but a streak of blue energy leapt from the man and hit her before he could react. 

 

Charlie was flying.  Well more accurately, Charlie was being pulled through the air towards the shining blue man.  She had a few seconds to consider her predicament and found it utterly hopeless.  No amount of shifting would enable her to draw a weapon or escape the force.

 

“Charlie shut your eyes!”  Garrus shouted through her helmet speakers.  She immediately complied and could see a bright flash underneath her eyelids as the room was suddenly brightly lit and then plunged again into darkness.

 

The blue light surrounding her was extinguished and Charlie landed heavily on the ground and quickly rolled into cover.

 

“You alright?”  Garrus asked out of breath into the radio.

 

“Yeah, I’m fine.  Good job with the lights, but that biotic is going to be a problem.”

 

Garrus moved over to Charlie’s location.  “I took out the other one while you were playing with the biotic.”

 

Charlie groaned at Garrus as they shifted to another piece of cover.  The biotic was able to track their location now and moving continuously was the only way to avoid getting hit.

 

“You still have that tech armor?”

 

Charlie grimaced under her mask.  “Yeah, but it makes me glow so I haven’t been using it.”

 

“Alright, I want you to get close to him.  That’ll probably mean that you have to rush him.  We’ll split up and attack him from two directions.  As soon as I see you’re close enough, I’ll take care of his shields and then you get up close and detonate the tech armor.  Hopefully we’ll be able to tackle him down then.”

 

Charlie gave a quick nod and they set off.  The main problem with biotics is that they usually have two sets of shields.  In a normal combat situation, they would just whittle down the soldier’s shields and finish him off, however this was a game and Charlie really wanted to keep everyone alive for humiliation reasons.  The other reason she didn’t want to “kill” anyone was because when you “killed” in the arena your entire suit shut down, including your headset.  Charlie wanted them all crippled on the ground and listening to her deafening tunes until _she_ allowed them to get up. 

 

This soldier was good, very good in fact.  He had positioned himself in a very defensible position in the field.  There were only three ways to get to him and he was routinely checking each one of them.  When the pair had split, it seemed that the biotic couldn’t keep track of both of them.  Charlie crouched down behind some cover about ten yards away from her target.  She heard the slight whine of her tech armor shift into place and with a deep breath, Charlie bolted for the biotic. 

 

The soldier saw her immediately and raised his right hand to shoot her and his left hand started to build a blue glow of energy.  Charlie was half-way through her sprint and was starting to wonder if Garrus was going to hit the man, when a spark of electricity crackled over the biotic and he stumbled for a second.  He did not waste any time in sending whatever had been building in his hand at Garrus. 

 

Charlie ducked low and hugged his waist, as she slammed his body to the ground.  She wasted no time in detonating the tech armor while she was still directly on top of him.  While he was momentarily stunned Charlie got the pistol out his hands.  Biotics, especially human biotics, are not known for having close combat skills.  The majority of human biotics are powerhouses at controlling a battlefield, but if you get one alone, they’re fairly weak.  So Charlie was amazed to see the man block her attacks and actually succeed in flipping her over and pinning her to the ground.  However the shock only lasted for a moment when her instincts kicked in. 

 

Charlie wrapped her legs around his waist and used her strong core muscles to twist him off of her.  Simultaneously, she slammed her forearm into his throat.  His armor was strong enough to prevent a crushed windpipe, but it would definitely hurt. 

 

They scuffled on the ground and in the end Charlie had him face down on the ground, a knee in his back, and his arms safely secured in a lock.  He was incredibly strong, especially since Charlie was pretty sure he was enhancing his extremities with biotic power. 

 

“Garrus, where the fuck are you?  I need some help.”  Charlie growled into the channel.  It was taking all of her ability to keep him down and she couldn’t use a gun without letting go of one of his arms.

 

“Stasis.  Wearing off now.”  Garrus’ voice strained under the effort of speaking while frozen in stasis.

 

Eventually Garrus stumbled out and shot the man’s arms and legs.  Then he raised the lights in the arena and the duo went about the room collecting the soldiers from where they had fallen.  They were lined up in a sitting position against a low wall and Garrus and Charlie took up poses in front of them.  Charlie stood with one hip tilted up and her arms crossed over her chest and Garrus leaned one arm on her shoulder as he stood at a slight angle.  Smug arrogance seemed to drip from their pores or, in Garrus’ case, from between their plates.

 

“Are you going to let them out?”

 

“I’m waiting for the song to finish.”  Charlie replied with a wry grin behind her mask.

 

After about a minute, Charlie switched off the music and announced to the men, “Well I’d say that we win.  How about you?”

 

“What the fuck was that?” said one of the men, who sounded a lot like Daniels.

 

“That was us winning.  Was there something confusing about it?”  Charlie replied sarcastically.

 

“You cheated!”  Another man accused.

 

“Garrus, did we cheat?”  Charlie looked up at Garrus with mock sincerity.

 

“Technically?  No.  We followed all the rules laid out to us by these soldiers.  I mean we could have hacked their suits and crippled them that way or you could have stripped them naked.  Don’t think that I didn’t know that you thought of that, Charlie.”  Garrus dryly drew the words out.

 

“See Garrus doesn’t think that we cheated.  Now I think you all owe us both some apologies and some drinks.”

 

“I am not taking you out for drinks now, bitch.”  Daniels spat at her.

 

“Oh honey, I wouldn’t sit at a bar with you if it was 2-for-1 Thursday.  No, I want you to pay for _our_ drinks.  Garrus how thirsty do you feel?”

 

“Pretty thirsty, I’d say … fifty credits should be enough.”

 

“Alright you owe us a hundred credits.”

 

“The turian said fifty.”  One of the men spoke up.

 

Charlie placed a hand on her chest.  “I’m thirsty too, though.  However, that reminds me of my previous statement.  You all owe us an apology.  The Lieutenant owes me one, because you are a pig and the rest of you went along with this bastard.  I also got the distinct impression that you men didn’t care for my friend’s species, so you definitely owe him an apology as well.”

 

“Why the fuck would we apologize to you?  Just because you beat us in a rigged game does not mean we owe you a damn thing.”  Daniels was clearly irate at the humiliation.

 

Charlie crossed the room, crouched down in front of the man, and raised the visor of her helmet.  “Because I am Detective Charlie Nacht and this is Detective Garrus Vakarian.  If we don’t get an apology I’m sure we can find some charge to hold you fine officers overnight at C-Sec on.  Isn’t that right Garrus?”

 

“Definitely.”

 

There was a slight pause as Charlie glared into the reflective surface of his helmet.  “Fine,” Daniels said, his voice cracking slightly under nerves.  “I’m sorry I grabbed your ass and I’m sorry about the way I treated Detective Vakarian.  If you let me move my arms, then I’ll give you the credits.”

 

“Gladly.”

 

Charlie smoothly rose up to a standing position and between her and Garrus they shot all of the men “dead”.  A computerized voice gave them a score and time on the match and the door hissed open.  The men shifted on the ground and stretched out their stiff limbs.  Daniels took off his helmet and walked over to Charlie and Garrus. 

 

“I just transferred the money to you.  Please leave.” 

 

* * *

 

 

Garrus walked out of locker room and found Charlie already dressed and waiting for him. 

 

“Do you feel like we just mugged those soldiers?”  He asked her.

 

There was a smile tugging at the corners of Charlie’s mouth.  “Why?  Were you actually going to call C-Sec and write up false charges?”

 

“It wouldn’t have been false charges if Daniels had groped you again.  That might qualify as sexual assault.”  Garrus’ straight face was marred by a twitching of his mandibles.

 

Charlie gave up all pretenses and laughed out loud.  “Let’s go get drunk on their credits.”

 

At the bar Garrus ordered a very nice Menaen brandy and Charlie had her usual scotch.  He was pleased that she had relaxed into her old self, but he was still sure that they needed to talk.  Garrus had known Charlie for long enough to know that if he didn’t say something soon, she would force whatever was bothering her down and they’d never talk about it. 

 

Garrus took a breath and tried to sound as casual as possible.  “So, how have you been?”

 

Charlie finished her drink with one last swallow and tapped the glass as a signal for another one.  “Well I’m living in an apartment alone for the first time in … actually this is the first time.  Grace is off-station in a different system and I can’t see her for another two weeks.  I can barely meet the eyes of my ‘best friend’.  I’ve got neighbors, colleagues, reporters, anonymous supporters, and anonymous hatemongers calling me at all hours of the day.  I almost got Grace, you, Saren, and a large portion of the Citadel killed because I couldn’t talk down a crazy man.  And to top all of that off, I got a promotion that up until a week ago I would have said I deserved.”

 

Finished with her statement, Charlie knocked back the freshly filled tumbler of scotch.  She promptly made a face and coughed.  Garrus watched her and bit back a comment about how you are supposed to sip scotch. 

 

“You missed something in that.”  He waited until Charlie gave him a tired look.  “You almost got killed too.”

 

When Charlie shrugged her shoulders, Garrus grabbed her arm and turned her to face him.  “You almost got yourself killed and for what?  I saw that look in your eyes, Saren missed it and thought you were playing a gambit, but I know better.  You were going to let him kill you to save us and do you know what?  You were wrong.  It was stupid and reckless; you’re supposed to know better than that.”

 

Charlie uncharacteristically let her eyes fall away from his gaze.  “I really was going to.  I wish I could tell you that I had a plan to go along with that; like I knew that Grace was gearing up for a biotic breakthrough, but I didn’t.  It was my last play to keep him from killing her, from killing both of you.”

 

“There is always another way that doesn’t include a suicidal gambit.”

 

Charlie glared at Garrus at the word “suicide”.  She looked like she was about to say something, but instead she let her tense shoulders fall and she stared at the empty glass.

 

“Charlie?  Say something.  Tell me I’m an ass or something, please.”  Garrus said.

 

“I … no.  You’re right.  It was stupid.”  Charlie lit cigarette and watched the blue swirls of smoke drift into the empty space between them. 

 

It was frustrating Garrus to no end to see her like this.  When they had been messing with the Alliance soldiers, he had allowed himself to think that they were going to go back to being friends.  But now it seemed they had gone backwards and Charlie was slowly sinking back into her shell.  Self-deprecation was not a good look on Charlie. 

 

Garrus ran his talons across his fringe.  “Yeah, you can be incredibly stupid, but so can I.  Listen, I don’t know what happened a few months ago between us, but this has gone on for far too long.  I’d like to claim all of the stubbornness, but you definitely contributed.  Now I miss my friend, my real one, and I’m trying really hard to talk to her, but she’s ignoring me.  I don’t know if I did something horrible that night or if you did or if it was just really awkward.  And yes I know that you were lying and something _actually_ happened.”  He added as Charlie started to open her mouth to speak.  “The point is that I don’t care.  If I did something wrong, I’m so sorry.  If you did something wrong, then I don’t care.  If it was just a horrible cross species liaison, then well I never claimed to have a human fetish.  So, let’s put this behind us.  I don’t want one night of drunken stupidity to ruin all of this.  I don’t have ‘feelings’ for you and I’m pretty sure that you are asexual and incapable of feeling for anyone.”  Garrus heard Charlie give off a snort and he took it as a good sign.  “So, let’s just go back to me being oblivious of your gender and us being friends.”

 

The sentence hung in the smoke drenched air in the bar for far too long.  It was beginning to sour when Charlie finally spoke.  “What if I did something really bad?”

Garrus rolled his eyes at her and looked at her dryly.  “Did you take naked pictures of me with male hanar prostitutes and are now attempting to blackmail me?  Just so you know that would never work.  You’re better off selling those to Fornax for their ‘Plates and Tentacles’ special issue, because they have been harassing me for _years_ to get a glimpse of all this.”  He waved a hand luridly down the length of him and took, what he hoped was, a provocative pose at the bar.

 

Charlie attempted to keep her face straight, but failed miserably and ended up burying her head in her arms and laughing loudly.  Garrus let at triumphant grin spread across his face as he took a sip of brandy. 

 

When she finally stopped wheezing, which Garrus privately thought was just a little too much laughing at his expense, Charlie said.  “Alright, it wasn’t that bad.  You’re a good man … er turian, Garrus Vakarian.  I’m just glad that you didn’t decide that we shouldn’t get drunk together anymore.”

 

“Spirits forbid it.  What would we do together if we didn’t drink?  I guess there’s work and sparring, but that’s clearly not enough.  So, let’s talk about other points you made in your previous confession.  You really think that you failed Grace?”

 

Charlie scowled into her drink and lit a cigarette.  “Did you know that Mya’s mother told me that Grace was biotic years ago?  I completely ignored the woman.  I don’t think that I failed Grace, I _know_ I did.”

 

“Charlie, you have spent the past six years giving that child all you could.  You were more active in her life than most parents and you are single.  I’m just saying that I don’t think there is anything else that could have been done.  Even if you had brought her in for testing, which would have been crazy because there was no way she was biotic as far as you knew, all of this would have played out the same way.  Grace would still be taken off-station to a special school.  There is nothing you could have done to prevent that.  At least you didn’t completely cut her out of your life for the past eight months and not tell her why.”

 

Charlie gave him a look.  “It’s not like you are her parent.”

 

“Charlotte, I’m a little like her parent.  I spent almost as much time with her as you did, aside from this year, and I would frequently stay over and watch her overnight.  Also I went to all of her school functions and I went to, at least, two of the PTA meetings for you.”

 

Charlie raised a hand to her face.  “Oy vey ist mir.  We are the most ridiculous family.  I can’t believe we aren’t an NBC sitcom.” 

 

Garrus ignored the last sentence as it was a classic Charlie-ism to make references that he didn’t understand.  He was slowly building a list of them in his head.  Sometimes he would catch himself using them to other humans and he was slightly gratified when they didn’t understand them either.  Garrus typically wrote it off as yet another example of the odd that was Charlie.

 

“Excuse me, Detective Nacht?”  The male voice belonged to a slightly short, yet broad dark-haired male.  Garrus recognized him as the biotic from before and subtly braced himself, in case the male decided to take some revenge for the embarrassment.

 

Charlie turned to size up the male and said, “Kay the biotic, right?”

 

Garrus judged her words and silently thanked the spirits that she was not drunk.  A drunken Charlie was much harder to control.

 

“Actually, I prefer Alenko.”  The man scratched the side of his face where a day’s growth of facial hair was forming.  “Kaidan, if you’re feeling informal, but I do prefer Alenko.”

 

Much to Garrus’ surprise, Charlie blanched.  If he didn’t know her better he would have thought she was terrified of the small man.

 

Eventually Charlie realized the face she was making and she blushed and cleared her throat.  “Lieutenant?”

 

Alenko gave a friendly chuckle.  “No, ma’am.  It’s just Private Alenko.  I’m sorry to bother you like this, but I couldn’t talk to you in front of the marines.  When you said your name … I … I didn’t realize it was you.  I caught your interview with Wong.”

 

Charlie closed down her face immediately and absently reached behind her for her glass.  “Oh.”

 

“No, you don’t understand.”  Alenko nervously scratched the side of his face again.  “What you said in the interview was … well I’ve never heard a non-biotic talk like that to press before.  I wanted to personally thank you.  I’m sure you’re concerned about your daughter.  Do you want to talk about it with me?  I have some considerable experience in that field.”

 

Garrus saw this as the perfect time to make an exit and stood up to do so, while motioning for Alenko to take his seat. 

 

Charlie quickly snaked out an arm and caught him firmly at the wrist.  “Where the fuck are you going?  What happened to ‘Grace is my daughter too’?”  Her obnoxious mimicry of a turian voice would have been extremely offensive to anyone else.

 

Garrus gave a grumble as he resumed his seat and Alenko took up a stool on the left side of Charlie.

 

Alenko ordered a beer and Garrus noted the look that he gave Charlie out of the corner of his eye.  His eyes stopped at her arm and he muttered a quiet curse. 

 

“What?” Charlie, who was clearly on the defensive, harshly asked.

 

“I was just thinking that if Daniels and the others had met you dressed like this, they never would have fallen for the ‘innocent girl’ routine.  What happened to your arm?  Those are bite marks.”  Alenko gave Garrus a wary glance, as if he might be rabid.  Garrus raised his arms innocently.

 

Charlie just laughed.  “Oh yeah that’s where a raptor tried to take a bite out of me back on Mindoir.  I say tried, because he ended up with a shotgun to the chest.  I know I could get the scars removed, but I like keeping the stories with me.”  She lifted her forearm so Alenko could get a better look at the old wound.

 

Alenko’s brow furrowed as he studied her arm.  “I’ve never seen a woman with skin like this.”

 

Charlie shrugged, but Garrus interjected.  “What’s wrong with her skin?”

 

She gave him a sardonic grin and raised her other arm to Garrus.  “I have some gnarly calluses all over me.  How have you not noticed this?”

 

Garrus narrowed his eyes and looked at the rough skin.  It wasn’t that he didn’t know that Charlie was scarred, but he had never compared how she looked to other human females.  Now that he was considering this, Charlie was definitely differently shaped and textured.

 

Alenko’s eyes travelled over her arms and shoulders.  “What kind of gene mods did you take?”  His voice was hushed and slightly troubled.

 

“Eh, just strength and dexterity, though it was the Mark 3 strength mod.”

 

Alenko’s eyes were definitely full of concern now as they snapped to Charlie’s face.  “I thought that women weren’t supposed to go past Mark I.”

 

Charlie groaned and knocked back the rest of her drink.  “Actually a man or _woman_ can get the same mods.  The strength mod just regulates how large and dense the muscles are.  Now it’s true that if a woman gets a higher strength mod they might have trouble with pregnancy, because the abdominal muscles are woven too tightly.  But I’m not planning on having kids, I can barely keep a handle on Grace and she’s an angel, and even if I change my mind I can have surgery to separate the muscles.  Most women just opt not to worry about it.”

 

Charlie tapped the side of the tumbler to signal the bartender for another one.  “Besides I needed them if I was going to continue to kick this guy’s ass.”  She gave a friendly punch to Garrus’ ribs and he only partially feigned the pain.

 

“Well I feel much better about having my ass handed to me by you.  Though that music was so loud it did give you a significant advantage.  I can’t really handle bright lights or loud noises very well.”

 

“That noise was music and I’m not apologizing for you having a lack of taste.”

 

Kaidan snorted and took a sip of his beer.  “I didn’t know the rest of it, but The White Stripes in the beginning was a nice touch.  Though I haven’t heard classic rock used to illicit fear before, well outside of bad old vids.”

 

Charlie’s entire demeanor changed so quickly that Garrus almost fell off his stool.  She was positively glowing with giddiness.  “You know about The White Stripes?”  The words were spoken so quickly that Garrus could hardly decipher them.

 

Alenko looked at her like she was an idiot.  “Do I know about Jack White?  Are you kidding me?  Once he lost that drummer, his career was huge in the 2020s.  My dad was kind of an old music buff when I was growing up.  His most prized possession was an old physical media disk of White’s.  So I kind of was forced to listen to that repeatedly as a kid.”

 

“He lost Meg White?  I don’t know if I should be sad or not.  I mean she wasn’t the greatest, but I kind of liked the whole shtick they had.  So I guess that means that the Raconteurs made it big?”

 

“Actually …”

 

Garrus tuned out the conversation at this point, as they were talking about long dead humans that he didn’t particularly care about.  Eventually, the conversation swung back around to biotics and Grace.  Garrus was included again and they proceeded to have a very interesting talk about the girl.  Apparently, her innate ability was extremely rare among humans and Alenko was surprised to learn of it.  He had also heard very good things about the Ascension program and promised to keep an ear out for anything ill about the instructors there.

 

The conversation wound down and Garrus was struck by two things.  One, was that Alenko was good man and he was pleased that he had sought them out.  The other was that Charlie had relaxed and all of the awkward tension that had been present between them had completely dissolved by the end of the night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have yet another chapter for you. I've been swamped with wedding planning with my sister lately, so I've been getting home far too late. So, I'm sorry about this being late. Anyways, it's a nice big chapter for you. As always anyone reading this is a sexy beast and I love you. 
> 
> Oh the music that Charlie plays for the soldiers is: The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army", Streetlight Manifesto - "Keasbey Nights", and OK Go - "Invincible".


	26. Chapter 26

**February 2176**

“It’s ok, just try it again.”

 

Grace frowned at the woman sitting across from her and then looked back to the black cube on the table.  This was pointless.   She had not been able to so much as make the cube vibrate in days.  This was partly because she wasn’t sure how to do it and partly because her mind was far too distracted.  Grace, in spite of her empathic abilities, was quite pragmatic.  To her things had to flow through a logical reasoning in order to work.  Now a normal non-biotic might find it hard to believe that a person with the capacity to bend the laws of physics would so wholeheartedly believe in them, but she did. 

 

Professor Tyrelle might be a brilliant biotic adept, but she didn’t understand how Grace manipulated her own biotics.  Grace could only use her biotics if she perfectly understood _how_ she was using them.  It wasn’t like a “force” like Tyrelle was telling her, it was manipulation of laws.  She could never go beyond the laws that were written, Grace could only use them.  So when Tyrelle was telling her to focus on the block, well that didn’t make any sense.  What she was actually focusing on was a spot just to the left of the block.  All Grace had to do was gather enough matter into a spot and force it into a dense enough region.  It was always difficult, mostly because she wasn’t entirely sure how she did it.  Grace was fairly sure that she was manipulating the bonds between molecules and attracting them to each other, but that only kind of made sense. 

 

This would be so much easier if she could just touch Tyrelle and see what the woman did, but Grace had been told that humans didn’t do that.  Well Grace was a human and she _did_ do that.  It wasn’t like melding with an asari.  Grace couldn’t attune her nervous system or anything, but she could look through someone’s eyes and see and feel how they were accomplishing a task.  Grace had become very good at doing this without the person even being aware that it was happening, however she didn’t like to invade on someone’s privacy especially since most people’s minds were not ordered enough and they would have extraneous private thoughts flutter up to the surface.  The girl knew that it wasn’t what asari did, because when she had shown Mya the ability the girl was confused and when Mya had shown her what melding was, Grace was equally confused. 

 

The implants did not seem to be as helpful as the instructors and doctors had claimed either.  The L3 was interesting, but it was also painful.  Since undergoing her breakthrough, Grace had started developing the biotic tumors, or nodules, in the normal places, like along her spine.  However she had also started to develop a secondary organ that was attached to her spine.  The doctors had, at first, thought that it was harmful tumor and Char and Garrus had made the trip to the school for her surgery to remove it.  That had been terrifying, but then the tumor grew back.  Now her body was actively attacking the implant and was trying to remove it.  The doctors and technicians were not sure what to make of this development and kept refitting the implant.  However, Grace had a feeling that they would eventually have to remove it permanently and that sounded wonderful.  The darn thing was always getting in the way of whatever biotic task she was trying to accomplish.  It always felt like a battle of wills to do anything.

 

The cube slowly started to drift towards the spot she had been focusing on.  As the object got closer it picked up speed until it came to a quick stop in the location as Grace abruptly released her control.  

 

“Well done.”  Tyrelle said and made a mark on her data pad.

 

Grace quickly wiped away the small trickle of blood that had trailed from her nose.  If the professor saw it, then she would definitely not allow Grace to go on the trip with Char and Garrus. 

 

Tyrelle made a small tilt of her head as if someone was speaking into her headset.  “Well I think that’s enough for today.  You have some visitors in the lobby and I would hurry over to them.”

 

“How long has Char been waiting?”  Grace said with a small amused smile.

 

“Long enough that she’s getting loud, so hurry.”  Tyrelle gave a longsuffering sigh at the thought of the woman.

 

Grace started to run through the halls, but then she remembered that she was practically a lady now and ladies don’t run.  Well Char did, but she was definitely not a lady. 

 

The complex was massive and gorgeous, only a handful of the students were actually biotics and the rest were either highly intelligent or very wealthy.  This produced a semi-snobbish air to most of the students, but Grace could fit in to any crowd.  Partially it was because of her empathic ability to understand people on a deep level and the other part was that Grace had become a sort of social chameleon.  Around Char, she was still a little girl, but she let her mouth get a little dirtier.  Around Garrus she became a “princess”, because that turian was a giant pushover when faced with any form of femininity.  Around Mya, she was a tomboy who could appreciate a good “dirty” story.  And around Darius, she let her inner “geekyness”, as Char would put it, show, with just a dash of teasing though Grace wasn’t entirely sure why she couldn’t help but tease the boy.

 

Social skills were easy and natural to the girl, so finding a place in this new hierarchy had been extremely easy for her.  In the beginning, the other biotics were treated as outcasts, but Grace had remedied that quickly enough.  She never wanted to be the leader, but she would always lead from the sidelines.  Grace was a master at manipulating people, but never wanted the spotlight shone on her.  Not that she was shy; Grace just preferred to have the freedom that was ill afforded to popularity. 

 

She was playing out a scene in her head.  Grace was wondering what she would find in lobby of Grissom Academy.  The first time Char had visited her, the woman had shown up in dungarees and with a pistol, shotgun, and knife strapped openly to her person.  Garrus was just wearing a cloth uniform and was sitting calmly in a chair sipping a cup of tea, but Char was slowly sharpening her combat knife while glaring at the security team.  That was actually only hilarious in hindsight.  If Grace hadn’t been quick to lobby, then Char might have lost her cool.  Ever since that time, there had been a weapons check before admitting family and Char had decided to make it her personal mission to sneak in guns or knives.  The woman claimed it was to show them how lax their security was, but Grace knew that Char just enjoyed picking on the security team.  With that thought, Grace quickened her steps.  Today was not a day to press their luck.  She was finally going to get to leave and have her Bat Mitzvah on Earth, everything had to be perfect. 

 

It had taken months of careful planning to get the teachers and doctors to admit that Grace was in control of her abilities.  Besides the unnatural tumor, Grace was a model student.  A couple of times she had accidentally used her biotics, but none of the professors knew that.  The first time she had been studying in her room and she was extremely concerned about passing an upcoming exam, when her roommate came in.  Kastanie was loud and obnoxious, normally Grace welcomed the distracting girl who was a shameless flirt, but that day she had been trying to avoid her.  When Kast walked, Grace accidentally threw her out of the dorm room.  Thankfully Kast wasn’t hurt and, as she is a biotic, she completely understood.  Grace didn’t though.  What concerned Grace was that she couldn’t actually use a Throw ability and she had no idea how she had performed the action.  It was disconcerting, to say the least.  Aside from that outburst, the other accidents were not nearly as violent.  Once when she was watching a game of biotiball, a stray ball flung wide on the field and hit her.  As the balls are biotically charged, she could have sustained a serious injury; but she instinctually raised a biotic shield around herself and the projectile bounced off.

 

However the teachers and staff were not aware of those incidents and Grace carefully kept them in the dark concerning the events.  She knew that if they thought that she was not in control then they would never let her leave the school and Grace craved freedom.  Actually the staff was quite sure that Grace only possessed low levels of biotic ability.  Grace wasn’t sure what the truth was, but she strongly felt that this was not the case.  She thought that she could manipulate the laws of physics at a higher level then she currently was, if she only knew how. 

 

The stress of possibly staying behind in the Academy started to eat at her and she wondered if Char was behaving herself.  Why were elevators so darn slow?  Char might be an intelligent woman, but she was definitely not a patient one.  Garrus might keep her in line, but he tended to indulge her unpredictability as he found it amusing.  She had to get to the lobby and quickly if they were actually going to leave for the trip.  Grace was nearing the lobby door when she felt the tell-tale tingling at the base of her neck. 

_No, not now.  Please don’t._

 

The tingling spread to her extremities and centered itself at the small of her back.  Grace felt as though she weighed nothing at all, but her body was screaming in pain.  Every joint threatened to pull itself apart.  She had to focus to make this stop.  Grace pulled up the image of the lobby and imagined that she had just arrived there.  She would hug Char and Garrus and then leave this station and head to Earth.  It would be wonderful, she just had to make this stop and get there.

 

The spreading sensation turned into a vibration and it made her skin feel warm with the motion, but inside of her it felt like her veins had turned to ice.  The air in her lungs was painfully ripped from her body and it took every ounce of self control to not immediately panic.  It wasn’t that she felt like she was moving quickly, there was no rushing of wind, but Grace had been in the hall when her eyes closed and when they opened she was in a crumpled pile in the lobby. 

 

Grace didn’t hear Char cry out, but suddenly the dark-haired woman was standing over her.  She tried to speak, but her lungs refused to work.  When she started to gasp on the ground, Char rolled her over on her back and checked her mouth.  Then the woman began CPR and a few short moments later Grace was breathing normally.  Her lungs were ablaze with pain, as well as her ears, mouth, nose, and eyes.  The eyes were definitely the worst, Grace was almost blind. 

 

Her voice was still not working properly, as she couldn’t hear herself protest the blanket Garrus had somehow found and was wrapping around her.  It was odd that she was shaking, because she didn’t feel cold; actually she felt like she was on fire.  Grace was concerned with the amount of blood she was covered in though.  It seemed to being pouring out of her from multiple places. 

 

There was an odd rushing noise in her ears and it was too loud to make out what everyone was saying.  Char and Garrus seemed to yelling something at the receptionist and Grace just held onto the two adults.  It was hard to focus on staying conscious with all of the pain, but she couldn’t let them take her to the Grissom hospital without them.  Panic had definitely settled into Grace’s mind, she couldn’t hear or see very well or comfortably use her limbs.  Garrus sat behind her and laid her head on his uniformed chest.  Grace immediately relaxed.  She didn’t know what was going on, but she could feel the vibrations of him humming to her.  It was comforting and reminded Grace sadly of being younger and being home.

 

* * *

 

 

“What are you talking about?  How could this be decompression sickness?”

 

Garrus placed a hand on Charlie’s shoulder and she didn’t shrug it off.

 

The male doctor with graying temples wisely ignored Charlie’s attitude and continued with his report.  “Miss. Wallis’ condition is indicative of brief exposure to the vacuum of space.  This is observed from the decompression sickness, the rupturing of blood vessels on exposed skin, the hypothermia, and rapid evacuation of air from her lungs.  We are expecting a full recovery, however, as the exposure must have been extremely brief.  It would be helpful if you could repeat the events for my ears.”

 

Garrus could feel Charlie trembling under his palm and decided to take the lead.  “We were standing in the lobby with only the receptionist.  There was a slight electrical feeling in the air, a feint smell of ozone, and a pressure shift before Grace appeared.  There was no flash of light to announce her presence, one moment she wasn’t there and the next she was.  Grace crumpled to the ground and began to bleed out.  When Charlie reached her, Grace was conscious but wasn’t breathing.  She performed CPR and Grace could then breathe on her own.  Her skin was brittle and cracked to the touch.  When she started to glow blue with biotics, we calmed her down.  That is when the paramedics arrived.”

 

Garrus’ calm recitation belied the anxiety building under his plates.  When Grace had appeared he had been momentarily struck with panic and Charlie’s cry had awoken him to movement.  Garrus had thought he was witnessing Grace’s death.  The scream that ripped from her mouth after Charlie had forced her lungs to work had chilled his blood.  So he held her and desperately tried not to jostle her brittle flesh as he mourned internally.  Charlie, however, was not handling this well at all.  Garrus had never seen her like this.  The woman could face down a charging krogan while wearing nothing but a smile or calmly handle a hostage situation where she was a hostage, but the uncertainty of Grace’s condition had cracked her.  Garrus was forced into being the calm reasonable one as Charlie’s mood shifted wildly from panicked crying to blind rage.  He had seen her rage before, but never cry.  She had been clinging to him and the salty smell of her tears had filled his senses; it was horrid.

 

The doctor slowly nodded his head as he compared Garrus’ tale of events to his chart.  “Would you say that the experience was similar to a relay jump?”

 

Garrus rapidly blinked his eyes as he considered this; however Charlie found her voice first.  “What the fuck are you talking about?  Are you hiding a small relay on the station?  What does this line of questioning have to do with how my little girl is doing?  When can I see her?”

 

Charlie’s mood had definitely swung back around to rage and Garrus tightened his hold on her shoulder, in case she decided to attack the doctor.  He didn’t think that she would, but Charlie was not exactly rational right now.

 

The doctor did not seem impressed by the outburst and calmly looked between Charlie’s reddened face, Garrus’ hand on her shoulder, and Garrus’ own face with its plates locked firmly to the sides.  He took a deep breath and said, “You may see her now, but she is asleep.  Miss Wallis should wake within the hour.  I will keep her here for a few days for observation.”

 

The doctor left them alone in the hall outside of Grace’s door.  The pair stood there for a moment silently studying the metal door before Charlie cleared her throat and stepped through the doorway.  The door dutifully slipped open and shut behind them.  Grace was lying on the hospital bed covered in tubes.  If it was possible for her to look worse then she had when they last saw her eight hours ago, she did.  Her skin was mottled with red patches and bruises, the blood had been cleaned away but there were tiny red veins showing through her pale skin.  Charlie started trembling again and Garrus pulled her against him.  He had never hugged her before, he had been this close before, but that was usually on the mat.  This was different.  This was two grown adults seeking each other’s comfort, because the closest person either of them had to a daughter had been horribly injured and they were terrified.  Garrus was surprised at how easily their vastly differing body types fit together.

 

Eventually Charlie broke the embrace and passed a hand across her eyes to dry her tears.  With a nod of thanks to Garrus, she took a chair next to Grace’s bed.  As Garrus took a seat opposite her, he marveled at humans.  They could quietly show emotions in the form of tears while turians were left with only vocal options.  He was almost jealous of them.  Of course humans wouldn’t be able to hear the hidden dual tones of grief, but Charlie would have felt the soft rumbling in his chest when he held her.  Some part of him hadn’t wanted to let her go, but he firmly squashed that thought.  This was neither the time nor the place for those thoughts and the last time he had expressed those emotions had gone so poorly that clearly he should never try again.  So he mentally drowned the treacherous emotion and resumed his silent watch over Grace.

 

* * *

 

 

Grace could feel Char and Garrus before she was fully conscious.  They must have been near her.  Garrus was emanating grief and concern and something else, Grace wasn’t sure what it was but it stemmed from anxiety over something.  Char was stronger, but Grace had always been sensitive to her guardian’s emotions.  Grief and concern were present as well, but there was also rage barely suppressed and it was directed at the Academy, Grace was sure of that.  Floating under the surface was a barely noticeable feeling of regret.  Grace couldn’t get a clear read on that one, but it may have been directed at Garrus.  She wondered what else had happened to the adults while she had been unconscious. 

 

Grace could feel the sensation of possessing a corporeal body again and knew that her mind was waking up.  There wasn’t any pain, but there was a foggy numbness that was indicative of heavy medication.  Her eyelids felt like weights had been attached to them as she struggled to look around. 

 

There was a shuffle of clothing and creak of a chair beside her bed and Grace said a mental prayer that she could hear again. 

 

“Grace, hold on.  Garrus will get a nurse so you can wake up.”  The last sentence was clearly not directed at her and Grace could hear another chair creak and some footsteps as Garrus presumably left the room. 

 

A few minutes later, a nurse had removed something from Grace’s mouth and given her a medication that allowed her to fully wake up; though movement seemed beyond her capabilities. 

 

When Grace was able to look around at the people surrounding her, she was struck by how haggard they appeared.  Dark circles had formed under Char’s eyes and her clothes were crumpled and there was some blood on her.  Garrus somehow looked worse.  His face looked almost the same, but his facial plates were drooping lower and his clothes were a complete wreck.  Large dark red patched dotted his front. 

 

“I’m sorry.”  Grace simply said.

 

Char reached over and brushed her hair away from her face.  “Honey, you shouldn’t be sorry.”

 

Grace flitted her eyes over the bloodstains on their clothes and said, “I made us miss our trip to Earth.”  It wasn’t what she wanted to say, but she didn’t know how to apologize for what had happened.

 

Garrus spoke for the first time.  “That’s alright.  I heard that it’s far too cold in North America right now.  I’ve been trying to find an excuse to put this off for months.”

 

Charlie punched Garrus in the arm.  “Snow is fantastic, by the way, and there isn’t any in Florida.  Your scaly hide would have survived the beach.”

 

Garrus rubbed his arm.  “Woman, how do you always hit the same spot every single time?”

 

Grace laughed softly at the antics of the pair.  This felt like home and she missed having the two around her.  They would always resort to physical violence laced with humor to make her feel better. 

 

“How do you feel?”  Garrus asked her seriously.

 

“Right now, I don’t feel much of anything.  When the painkillers wear off I’ll let you know.”

 

The adults sat back down in their chairs and they talked about everything and nothing for a while.  About how school was going or her new friends on the station or Char’s promotion or really anything benign and normal, eventually Grace said, “Why haven’t you asked me how I did it or what I did?”

 

The turian and the human shared a look and then Char replied, “I figured that you’d tell us eventually.”

 

Grace looked down at the bruised flesh on her arm.  “I don’t know what happened.  I was excited and nervous about the trip.  Sometimes the implant seems to pick up on my subconscious thoughts and it just … does things.  I can’t explain it very well.”

 

“We met a biotic on the Citadel and he explained how it worked to us.” Charlie said, “He said that eventually you get used to manipulating it and controlling your emotions, but it can be difficult and take some time.  Technically it just works as an amplifier.  During your initial breakthrough you had similar problems.  It’ll get better.”

 

Grace didn’t get angry very often, but she could feel the first twinges of the emotion grip her.  “What are you talking about?  Everything I did then was on purpose.”

 

Charlie blinked at her and sat back.  “What?”

 

“When that man, Bill, grabbed you and put a gun to your head, I pulled him and his friend together and lit them on fire from the inside.  I knew what I was doing.  It wasn’t easy, I had to concentrate and manipulate the situation.  What happened today was completely different.  I had no control and it just happened!  I don’t understand what is going on, but I’m pretty sure the effort burned out the implant.  No one will listen to me and I’m not like the others here.  They don’t understand how it works; they just blindly ‘will’ things into happening.”

 

Char didn’t say anything to this and instead furrowed her brows.  Garrus said, “Tell us what you mean, Grace.”

 

“First, is my implant burnt out?”

 

Garrus walked over to the console on the wall and typed some commands into the orange screen.  He turned back to her and said, “They have taken the implant off-line for now.”

 

Grace sighed in relief, she really hated the device.  “Alright, well … it’s difficult to explain.  You know how gravity works?  How everything attracts?”

 

Char’s brow furrowed deeper and she nodded. 

 

“Well the easiest thing to do is to gather a matter into a dense enough space.  That it will ‘pull’ objects towards it.  I’m really not sure how I prevented everyone from flying towards it when I did it to those men, but I think it had something to do with a field I generated around them.  I can only do things that are physics based.  I can’t ‘will’ anything into existence.  I can’t create matter; I can only manipulate the bonds.”  Grace looked at the confused faces of the adults and sighed.

 

“Do you have a bobby pin I can borrow, Char?” 

 

After she received the pin, Grace laid it on her stomach and began the tedious process a few inches above the pin.  Without the implant to interfere with her attempt, the experiment was much easier and quicker than it was before with Professor Tyrelle.  The pin gave a little twitch and slowly drifted up to the region of space.  Grace held it there and gave a pointed look to Char.

 

The woman didn’t say anything for a moment, and then asked, “How long have you been able to do this?”

 

“I never really tried before on the Citadel.”  Grace responded, “I could do that thing with people’s minds like I told you, but that didn’t really go beyond having secret conversations with Mya.”  There was a slight pause as she considered it.  “I think I could have though, if I really wanted to.”

 

Garrus and Char shared another look.  “Grace,” Garrus began.  “Why do you think the implants aren’t working and have you told anyone?”

 

“I told the teachers in the beginning, but they told me I was just scared and that everyone was nervous in the beginning.  I think the implants _are_ working, but they are running counter to what I want them to.  Like they are picking up what I want to happen and trying to help, but I’m focusing on something else entirely.  It’s a battle to get my mind and the implants on the same page.”

 

“I think I should have a talk with the doctor and administrator.”  Char announced.

 

“Please don’t do that.  I can figure it out or eventually they will.  Please don’t make a big deal out of this.”  Grace said, vocalizing the fear of every thirteen-year-old.

Char smiled briefly and then turned serious once again.  “I’m sorry, Grace, but this is important.  I’m not going to do anything rash, but the teachers need to know that there is a problem with the implants.  They can’t force you to have them.  You still have rights.  In the beginning, it seemed like a good idea to get them, but if they aren’t working for you … then we’ll have them removed and they can just deal with that.”

 

Grace tried not to pout, but Char had a way of making the lives of her teachers miserable.  She had done it on the Citadel and she was doing it again.  Grace really didn’t want the implants and she was happy that they might be removed, but tact was not one of Char’s strong suits.  She gave Garrus a hopeful glance.

 

He chuckled at her and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll go with her.  Besides I think it might be a good idea to have you take some more classes in Physics if that’s what you’re basing your biotics after.  There are definitely more intriguing things than levitating objects and remotely lighting things on fire.  Not that that doesn’t sound extremely useful and impressive.”

 

He gazed intently at the back of Char’s head and wiggled his fingers as if attempting to light her hair on fire.  When Grace giggled at the image, Char crossed her arms and said dryly, “Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on back there.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter for you guys. I've hit a slight writer's block, but thankfully I still have a lot already written. I'm scared that I won't get past it. So I'm writing an extensive backstory for both Charlie and Garrus, but now I'm sad that I won't ever be able to use it. *tear*


	27. Chapter 27

**July 2176**

 

Detective Charlie Nacht sat back down in her stupid chair and grimaced at the stacks of data pads.  She may have just been anthropomorphizing them, but she could swear that any moment they would stand up and start taunting her.  The coffee was not helping, it was disgusting and she had no one to blame but herself as she was the only human in the department.  Charlie had honestly thought that being a detective would mean that she would actually be able to get _real_ police work done, but her transfer to Vice was not what she thought it would be.  If anyone had asked her, she would have definitely picked this department though.  Working to prevent crimes like illegal prostitution, drugs, and contraband was exactly what Charlie had wanted to do.  The problem was that she wasn’t doing that. 

 

Mostly it was paperwork.  She had to keep track of who the major players were and trace their movements.  Then if and only if she was really sure, she could submit a form for a raid.  Then it would take quite a bit of office politics to get the request pushed through quickly enough for the bust to be a success.  It was a nightmare.  Charlie tried to stay calm and remind herself that it was a good thing that it took so long.  She wouldn’t want a police force that could knock down a door on the slightest whim, but it was definitely getting harder to tell herself that. 

 

Of course her nerves were also frayed due to the headache that was her old precinct.  Charlie had thought that she could continue to help her old contacts after she got the promotion.  She still cared about the prostitutes and duct rats, but it had gotten to be far too much.  Eventually, she had talked to Officer Bailey and asked if he wouldn’t mind taking her place.  He was good at the job and responded well to the duct rats, but the girls were not a fan of him.  Bailey didn’t do anything wrong, they just preferred Charlie and still called her first.  In the beginning, she had continued to take the calls, but now it was just getting to be too much and she was going to have to put her foot down.  The prospect of backing out on the people who needed her, sickened Charlie.  She knew she couldn’t do it all, but maybe she could try just a little bit harder.

 

“Nacht, we’ve got a live one!  Homicide is already on scene, but it’s one of ours.”  Chellick kicked the back of her chair to further get her attention.

 

Detective Chellick had been her assigned partner since her first day and he had been wonderful.  Really it was a minor miracle that Charlie was getting along so well with someone who wasn’t Garrus.  The turian was a little laidback in appearance and attitude, but was passionate about his work.  He was always professional when he needed to be and Charlie was definitely a fan of his. 

 

“Who is it?”  Charlie asked as she slipped on the suit jacket draped across the back of her chair.  There wasn’t really a standard uniform for humans, yet.  So Charlie had decided on professional attire.  She rarely wore her light armor suit under her clothes anymore.  Instead she wore black slacks, a button-up collared shirt, usually white, and a plain black sport jacket.  It was simple and professional.  She still kept all of the weapons though now they were concealed.

 

“Draven Ellonius.”

 

“Holy shit.”  Charlie stopped moving and looked at her partner.  “Who the fuck is crazy enough to tangle with him?”

 

Chellick spread his mandibles wide.  “Let’s go find out.”

 

The scene at Vehovna Heights was … bloody.  Really there weren’t many other words to describe it.  Horrific wasn’t quite right, because Charlie wasn’t horrified at finding the drug lord dead.  Ghastly was a little much, though it did accurately describe the emotion she felt at seeing his hands and feet staked to the bed.  Nauseating was probably the closest to how her stomach was feeling as she leaned over the body to look into the burned out eyes.  However the scene as a whole could be best described with the word bloody though the blood was of the blue variety.

 

“Welcome to the party, Nacht.”  A familiar deep voice said behind her.

 

“Vakarian, I should have known it’d be you here.”

 

“Are you kidding?  I had to fight the others to get this one.  Draven Ellonius turns up dead in a brutal and ritualistic murder, the boys in homicide were crawling all over themselves to get this one.”

 

Charlie turned to look at the cobalt tattooed turian and asked.  “So what are you thinking, oh great and powerful Detective Vakarian?”

 

Garrus shrugged off the insult and turned professional in an instant.  “The body has not been moved and from the amount of blood on the scene, it’s clear he was murdered here.  Ellonius was definitely alive when they mutilated him.  Aside from the staking and gouged eyes there’s this.”

 

He lifted the sheet that had been partially covering the dead man and Charlie almost lost the coffee that was sitting on her empty stomach.  Ellonius’ lower body had been cut open and some organs had been removed, they had been replaced by what now appeared to be dead coals.

 

Garrus glanced at Charlie and noted her pale skin and the slight heaving in her chest as she covered her mouth.  “Yeah, that’s what I did when I got here.  The smell has mostly been taken care of by ventilation, but it was bad.  I have done some research and I’m thinking that we’re looking for human extremists.”

 

Charlie covered her mouth with her hand and started to analyze the body and its position. “Was his tongue removed?”

 

“No.” 

 

“What kind of wood is that?”  Charlie motioned to the stakes.

 

Garrus checked his omni-tool.  “It’s not actually wood.  It’s a poly-resin that looks like wood.  Probably taken off of a chair as actual wood is fairly expensive.”

 

Charlie nodded her head and motioned towards the stomach.  “What was the heating element used on his abdomen?  Was it actually coal?”

 

“Again coal is fairly hard to come by on a station, so no.  They are fire stones.”  At the slightly confused look on Charlie’s face, he added.  “They are used to cook outdoors in the military.  Essentially they are metal ‘stones’ that are filled with a chemical that heat when activated.  This has all of the classic signs of ritualistic human extremist activity.”

 

Charlie shook her head.  “It looks like that, but I don’t think that’s what it is.  Look, if this was just a bunch of anti-turian humans, then they would have done a better job.  If there’s one thing that we humans love, it’s tradition.  The stakes would have actually been wood, the coals would have, at least, been charcoal, and his tongue would probably have been removed.”

 

“Why would his tongue have been removed?”

 

“To prevent his lying turian tongue from spreading more lies.”

 

Garrus looked at her and blinked.

 

Charlie raised her hands.  “I didn’t say that I believe that.  Most turians tell very nice truths, however some of them ...”  She gave Garrus a look and then rolled her eyes at him.

 

“So do you have anything better than postulation?”

 

Charlie shrugged and nodded her head towards the living room.  “The guards were shot.  Professional hit.  The thing about the tongue still bothers me though.  I think that you’re partly right; this was humans but not an extremist group with religious ties.  This was done by humans who were torturing Ellonius for information and they used a very human way to do it.”

 

Garrus considered this possibility.  “That could work, but why would they do it like this?  This just seems like a lot of legwork and drama for torture.”

 

Charlie walked over the bedroom door and shouted.  “Chellick, who’s next in line after Ellonius?”

 

There was pause followed by Chellick shouting back at her, “Kyrnee I think.”

 

“Shit.”  Charlie muttered as she leaned against the doorframe.  “Kyrnee is notoriously paranoid and anti-human.”

 

“This was done by a new player then.  Someone trying to clear the Lemures out of the Citadel.”

 

Charlie mulled this thought over.  “It’s going to take more than killing Ellonius to accomplish that.  We might have a farkakte war on our hands.”

 

“There’s another possibility.”  Garrus mused as they stepped into the living room to steal away from the dead body.  “This could be a ploy by Kyrnee to make a grab for the throne.”

 

Charlie pulled up her omni-tool and ran an intel sweep on Kyrnee.  After a few minutes, she said.  “Could be, but it’s doubtful.  Ellonius was known as being the technical figurehead of the Lemures, but Kyrnee was the brains and money.  I doubt she would have any reason to pull something like this.  She’s controlled from the shadows for years now.  The last confirmed image and voice match we have on her is over five years old.  When I say she lived in the shadows, I mean it.  Someone like that doesn’t want to be seen and I can only imagine that her paranoia has doubled after she has no doubt found out about Ellonius’ death.”

 

“Wait, how would she know?  We’ve kept this quiet.”  Garrus asked indignantly.

 

Charlie gave him a sardonic look and folded her arms across her chest.  “Let’s pretend for a second that everyone as C-Sec is actually a white knight with untarnished virtue.  Then I would bet money that the building manager’s first call was to Kyrnee and only after she gave him the go ahead did he place a call into C-Sec.”

 

“Well aren’t we cynical today.”  Garrus shook his head at Charlie.  “I don’t actually know much about Ellonius and the Lemures.  What can you tell me?”

 

Charlie perched on the arm of the expensive couch.  “Draven Ellonius grew up here on the Citadel.  He grew up hard too.  Duct rat till he was twelve which was when he formed a gang called the Kellovs.”

 

Garrus started to chuckle at this point.  “Really he called his gang the Kellovs?  Spirits, that’s _exactly_ the kind of name you think is awesome you’re twelve.”

 

Charlie furrowed her brow as she really did not like not getting a joke.  Pride contested her asking for an explanation, but logic and reason won out.  She was, after all, a detective now and she needed all of the facts.  “Is this a turian thing?”

 

“Wellan Kellov was something of a folk villain.  400 years ago this turian broke ranks and left a battlefield.  When he returned home to Palaven, he was ostracized by his family and police were looking for him to bring him to justice.  So he went on a killing spree and supposedly died in a shootout.  Now there’s a lot more lore to this story.  However there are very few actual ‘facts’ and mostly Kellov is a scary bedtime story on why a good turian never leaves a battlefield.”

 

“Oy vey, that sounds incredibly turian.  It doesn’t really matter though.  Anyways, Ellonius’ Kellovs were only around for a few years.  They were mostly a virus tagging group.  Find a mark, tag him with a virus, and watch his credits leak from the crack in his firewall; very small time and only non-violent crimes.  This was when he first met Kyrnee, as far as we can tell.  They formed the Lemures together out of the dregs of the Kellovs and started selling for another gang.  Eventually, the other gang just left.  About twenty years ago that gang, Ari’Ellis, just disappeared.  There wasn’t a war or anything, one day the Ari’Ellis were in charge of the Kithoi ward and the next the Lemures were.  Not many people actually complained about it either.  The Lemures very rarely left bodies and they ran a tight ship.  They effectively lowered the crime rate in the ward.  Of course it helped that a major contributor every year to the C-Sec charity ball was Draven Ellonius, who was a major business and property owner.  No charge on him or Kyrnee has ever stuck.  Neither Ellonius nor Kyrnee ever went into the military, so they aren’t citizens.  However, they _are_ both extremely wealthy and have managed to stay off the radar of the Hierarchy.  Technically the turian government could have forced them back to Palaven as non-citizens aren’t allowed outside of turian space, but they ‘mysteriously’ never did.”

 

“I don’t understand why did Ellonius and Kyrnee live so differently?  There aren’t any pending charges on Kyrnee, so why does she hide?”

 

“Because Draven came from the streets and dreamed of living in a high-rise with lots of credits.  Pira Kyrnee came from a rather wealthy and prominent family.  She was a run-away and I think she spent too much time in hiding, to ever feel comfortable in the open.”

 

Garrus took a small step backwards and let his mouth hang open.  “Tell me she wasn’t Primarch Kyrnus’ daughter.”

 

“Got it in one, very nicely done.”  Charlie shrugged and went on.  “Yeah, she ran away when Kyrnus was still Primarch.  From what I’ve heard he wasn’t known for being a nice man, so I can imagine her home life was hell.  Especially since it’s not like you can go to the police when your dad is the Primarch.  Anyways, these days she’s a little unstable herself.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, Kyrnee’s smart, brilliant even, but she’s a little bit insane.  That’s why I highly doubt it was her who did this.”

 

Garrus shook his head at the implications and said, “So you’re thinking that this is a start-up who is looking for war?”

 

“That’s my personal feeling, however I can’t prove it.  It just makes the most sense to me.”

 

Chellick walked into the living room from the kitchen.  “I agree, Nacht.  I just got off the phone with the techs, they say the cameras went dark around 0800 this morning and again at around 1100.  No looping feed or anything, just dark.  It’s sloppy and unprofessional, which is not what you would expect from a hit like this.  Now the techs have also gone over the weapons used and they cannot find a match.  They must be manufactured by an independent business.”

 

“Check with the individual systems and see if anyone has seen them before.”  Garrus interrupted.  “Surely Sur’Kesh or Palaven has seen these weapons.”

 

“Shit, this is going to be a big fat mess.”  Charlie muttered.

 

Charlie had a horrible feeling that she would later eat those words.

 

* * *

 

**September 2176**

 

Garrus hefted the thin datapad in his hand and wondered briefly how much damage he could to the wall if he threw it.  Not much he reasoned, as the pad was just a thin sheet of plastic.  The report listed on it was more of the same.  No one knew where the murder weapons had originated from.  They had been seen before, but only by small groups and no government had ever captured any.  It was frustrating work; because only the intelligence agencies had any knowledge of the weapons and they were loathe to share their meager information.  In the mean time, the nameless group had struck two more times; once to a red sand warehouse and once to a large stash house.  Garrus still didn’t have any real leads, though Charlie’s earlier prediction of a gang war in the Kithoi ward was slowly becoming a reality.  The Lemures had begun to heavily arm their members and that was causing completely different problems.

 

Garrus looked at the datapad again.  He really did not want to go to the stupid event, but he had promised Charlie that she wouldn’t be left to go alone.  It was a human even and it was to mark the 11th anniversary of humanity’s presence on the galactic stage.  Garrus groaned at being forced to attend.  Charlie had received her invitation with a stern Anita Goyle twisting of her arm.  Apparently the first human detective needed to make an appearance.  He was also fairly sure that he was going to be the only non-human in attendance so that was going to make this … interesting.  But he had promised her that he would be there. 

 

Garrus rubbed his eyes and glanced at the time.  Confirming that is was time for a break and lunch, he stood up and went to find Charlie.

 

He found her hunched over her desk growling, in a very turian manner, over what she found there.  It was almost eerie hearing the noise emanating from her throat, but she had gotten pretty good at it.  Garrus could usually pick out which emotion she was displaying, though the frustration growl she was practicing right now wasn’t particularly difficult.

 

“Hey, stop that and let’s get some food.  I believe it’s your turn to buy.”  He gave the chair a firm kick.

 

Charlie flung the pad onto the desk and turned to glare at him.  The angry glare quickly shifted into a tired expression.  “Sorry about that.  Yeah, let’s eat.”

 

Garrus watched mesmerized as she reached behind her head and swiftly gathered her dark curls into a loose “french braid”, Charlie had called it.  He had seen her do this hundreds of times, but the action never ceased to amaze him.  Her many tiny fingers were so much better suited for this task, it was just so completely alien in appearance. 

 

The walk to the deli was a practiced routine at this point and they quickly found themselves standing in line for lunch. 

 

“So now I’m thinking that I just need to find some way to communicate directly with the ‘princess’.  Well I guess Chellick would have to, because she would never talk to me.”  Charlie said.  She had started calling Pira Kyrnee the “princess” a while ago, so they could discuss work outside of the office.

 

“She’s too crazy to gain an ‘audience’ with.  She’s definitely being hunted right now and any attempt you made to parlay would only be met with force.”

 

“I know.”  Charlie sighed.  “But if I could just talk to her.  Hell at this point I just want this whole ‘war’ to end.  I would prefer her crazy to the alternative murderous crazy of these humans.”

 

Garrus was about to respond, but he was interrupted by a human male voice from behind him.  “Excuse me are you Charlotte Nacht?”

 

Charlie narrowed her eyes and sized up the male.  Garrus unconsciously mirrored her stance.  The male was taller than Charlie, probably about 6’3’’, brown-haired, and had large green eyes.  His voice was deep, but friendly.  Garrus braced himself to defend Charlie against another crazy human, they varied between admirers and hating her.  Either way they tended to be fanatics and it was definitely getting old.

 

“I am and you are?”  Charlie’s voice was seeped with dry boredom.

 

“Andrew Pryce, I’m a visiting historian and I’m a little bit of a fan of yours.  I just got here from Earth, South Carolina in fact, and I wasn’t expecting to run into you like this.”  Andrew’s tone was congenial and even though his words put him in the ‘fanatic’ category, the manner in which he said them was casual and non-threatening.

 

“Oh, well I’m just getting lunch … so … it was nice meeting you, Mr. Pryce.”

 

There was silence for a long enough time that Garrus thought they had successfully avoided the encounter.

 

However, Pryce said, “I actually came to Earth, because of the interview you gave to Emily Wong.  You said that we needed to work with other species and that they are more similar to us than we like to think.  So, here I am.  If I could just ask you one thing, do you have any advice for working with asari?  Most of the historians here tend to be asari and their behavior can be … confusing.”

 

Garrus saw Charlie hang her head in resignation before she turned back around to face Andrew.  “Just remember that just because they look female, they don’t actually have gender.  It’s very easy to mistake their behavior as sexual innuendo.  Don’t underestimate them, don’t talk down to them, and don’t idolize them either.  It’s too simple to put them all in the same box.  I’ve met asari that make a teenage girl look like a hellion and I’ve met asari that flay your flesh off your body without taking a break from sipping their tea.  They are just like us, they just live longer and are much more powerful.”

 

Satisfied with her response she turned back around in line.  Pryce continued speaking.  “That makes sense.  It’s actually the curator that’s driving me crazy at the moment.  She has her own ideas about human history and won’t take an actual human historian’s viewpoint.  How did you deal with Executor Pallin?”

 

Charlie gave Garrus a “help me” look and turned back to Pryce and simply said.  “I didn’t have any problems with him.  He’s not exactly a ‘Rawls’ to my ‘MacNulty’.”

 

Garrus didn’t know what that meant, but he heard the dismissal of the conversation in her tone.

 

Pryce did not hear it.  “Well of course he’s not.  You’re not nearly Irish enough to be a MacNulty, also you’re far too lovely to be a man.”  When Charlie didn’t respond to the compliment Andrew continued.  “I wasn’t expecting such an intelligent reference from you.  I can’t remember the last time I discussed The Wire with someone who wasn’t a historian.”

 

Charlie leaned back and looked suspiciously at Andrew.  “How do you know about The Wire?”

 

“I’m a historian, I specialize in the 20th and 21st century American history.  ‘A man must have a code.’”

 

“’Oh, no doubt.’”  Charlie immediately responded under her breath and then stretched her face into a wide grin.

 

Garrus was not sure what just happened, but apparently Andrew was allowed to stay in their group.  The two humans continued to talk about history throughout lunch and Garrus, who was not particularly well versed in human history, felt left out.  It was nice though to see Charlie relax and enjoy herself; the woman had been so tightly wound for the past few months.

 

Then Andrew made a colossal mistake, he said.  “Would you like to go out sometime?  Like on a date?  I haven’t met someone so fascinating in very long time.”

 

Garrus paused with the sandwich part way to his mouth.  He had been trying to get Charlie to go out with someone for years, but the woman simply refused to comply.  She had shot down every man who had asked and usually shut down all communication with the individual.  It was brutal and extremely frustrating for Garrus.  He had managed to thoroughly squash any attraction he felt for her and she was once again firmly in his “friend” category, but he wanted her to find someone, anyone really.

 

So, he almost dropped his sandwich when she said.  “Sure, that sounds great.”  Which she quickly followed with, “Actually I have this event I’m going to on Saturday, maybe you’d like to come with me?”

 

Andrew immediately agreed and got the details of the ball.  As soon as Garrus and Charlie stepped into the elevator alone, he turned to her.  “I’m impressed, Charlie.  Going on dates with strange men seems like an almost normal activity.”

 

“Don’t think you’re getting out of going too.  I had to twist Goyle’s arm to let you attend and I’m not letting that effort go to waste.  Besides I might need some backup, if this thing goes pear shaped.”

 

“Spirits Charlie, when was the last time you went on a date?  Here’s a helpful tip, most dates don’t require someone on your six.”  He paused briefly and then added.  “Well … the good ones might.”

 

Charlie started counting on her fingers and got to seven before she clenched her fists and replied.  “I don’t know how long it has been.  A while.  Anyways if this ends with someone on my six, I give you permission to leave at that point.”  She said with a wink.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have taken some liberties and proclaimed The Wire to be important to historians in the future. Actually, I genuinely believe that it will be. It is an interesting slice of Americana and it was fantastic writing and directing. I think that anyone who has watched the show will agree with that. 
> 
> Anyways, here is the latest chapter and we will definitely be getting into some stories of Charlie's detective life.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. First of all, I would like to apologize for the extremely long hiatus. I was ... going through some stuff. Honestly, if I told you sweet wonderful people all about it I would sound so whiny and ridiculous. So we are going to pretend that I spilled some water on my computer and that that was the reason for the length of time. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have continued with the story if I hadn't been stumbling about the internet late one night and came across some of the comments that had been left for me. Thank you all for your interest in Charlie's story. I was immediately spurred into motion and edited a few new chapters and put them all into one large update for you wonderful people.
> 
> By the way, I had an additional scene here that I was going to include in the story. It was set up at the end of the previous chapter. However, I can't seem to get it just right and it frustrated me so much that I cut it completely. It wasn't particularly important to the story anyways and I'd be lying if I told you that is wasn't just a long set up for two lines of dialogue between Garrus and Charlie. So we are just moving swiftly forward with the Lemures investigation.

**March 2177**

Life continued its steady pace forward and Charlie’s life went back to its own terrible normalcy.   There were months when nothing of interest happened with her frustrating case concerning the Lemures.  Then the next month there would be another vicious attack on them.  The tension in Kithoi Ward was elevated.  There had been quite a few scuffles between C-Sec and the scared gang members.  Kyrnee had disappeared completely underground, but Charlie’s sources claimed she was still on the station.  Charlie’s little network of prostitutes, duct rats, and few drug addicts had really helped.  She really hated using them for information, but they coming to her and leaving their juicy little tidbits on her doorstep.  Everyone was scared.  Pallin was riding both her and Chellick hard.  However they really didn’t have much to go on.  The strikes on the Lemures were almost surgical in precision and seemingly random. 

Charlie had decided that the best path was to somehow gain contact with Pira Kyrnee.  The turian female was nearly impossible to find though and Charlie had tried almost everything in her arsenal.  She had even harassed the officers that she was fairly sure were in the Lemures’ pocket.  Nothing was working.   Kyrnee would know something though.  She had to know who was after her.

It wasn’t till March that Charlie got a message from the volus Barla Von to meet him on the Presidium. 

Charlie sat outside the small café waiting on the small alien.  She sipped the expensive coffee and hoped that it was actually beans and not instant, since it was so pricey.  A wheezing click beside her alerted her to the volus’ arrival.

“Detective Nacht … I presume?”

Charlie tilted her head in acknowledgement and motioned towards the empty chair. 

The volus shook his head at the offer.  “I am not used to playing the role of … messenger.  However, my employer … wishes you to have some interesting information … for a fee, of course.”

Charlie took a sip of her coffee and pointedly did not look at him as she said.  “Citadel Security does not pay for information.  If you have any information regarding an open investigation you should deliver this to headquarters.  Since you are a concerned citizen.” 

Charlie, having lived on the Citadel for the past seven years, was quite aware of how most volus’ did business.  Of course she would pay for valuable information, hell, she had already done so twice this week.  But she was known as being a “clean” cop and Barla Von might not know about her small network.

“Interesting … I must have seen another human female detective exchanging credits with an asari information broker … in the wards yesterday.  Forgive me … I’ll leave.”   The nasal click of Von’s voice prickled her skin.

“How do you know I wasn’t paying for some other services?”

Von gave a wet bubbling chuckle.  “I know your … proclivities do not branch further than your own species.  Though I have heard rumors they might branch towards … some turians.”

_Interesting that his information isn’t better than that._

Charlie looked at him from the corner of her eye.  Not meeting eye contact was considered rude to volus’, a social habit they picked up from their turian neighbors.

“If you have a confession to make about witnessing a crime, I’ll hear it.  But I’m not playing anymore games.”

“My … employer has heard some interesting news concerning a … princess.  I know you’re looking for her.”

Charlie’s hand jostled her cup, spilling some of the liquid on her pants.

Barla Von gave another wet chuckle and took the previously offered seat.  “So, now that I have your attention … let us talk of the princess.”

Charlie glared at the rotund alien for a while and then abruptly smoothed her features with a thoughtful smile.  “I find it fascinating that your … boss, would have taken an interest in my struggles.  Of course I’m grateful, but I can’t help but wonder why that is.  It’s not a widely known fact that the shad--, excuse me, the broker is rather mistrustful of humans in general.  I know that there is a certain human run organization in particular that he dislikes.  Bear with me as I work all of this out, please.  I think that he knows who is behind the attacks in the Kithoi Ward.  I think he doesn’t want them to continue.  He undoubtedly has, at least a small stake in the future of the ‘princess’.” 

Charlie’s voice was candid, but her face was grim as she was indeed piecing this together and finding that the picture that was formed was not a pleasant one. 

“Now, though I’m indeed flattered, I wonder why he would be coming to _me_ of all people with this.  My guess is that he knows I’ll actually do something with it.  Now let me turn my attention to the group, the … broker hates so much, I’ve considered who this could be for a while.  I mean the weapons are advanced, the squad is highly trained, and they are definitely a human group.  So allow me to ponder how many well funded human terrorists group there are.  I can only think of one that would have the means to pull this off.  I don’t know the ‘why’, but that’s not important right now.  What is important is your boss does not trust them.”

Charlie silently thanked the only DLC she had purchased for Mass Effect 2 and hoped that she was remembering it well enough.  She just had to get close to the truth.

“So I can imagine that having them in control of crime on the Kithoi Ward would probably prompt him to have you give me information about the princess’ location.  Now that leaves me to wonder what would happen if I refused to pay for it.  I’m sure he would be angry, but not at me.”

Barla Von did not say anything and just continued to noisily breathe at her. 

“Now, as I said earlier, I’m not playing any games.  So if you would kindly leave so I can enjoy my coffee.”

The volus found his voice.  “People will die and this will only get worse if you don’t have her location.  I don’t think you would … let that happen.”

Charlie leaned forward and said through a clenched jaw.  “I’m not letting the Shadow Broker’s teeth anywhere near my neck.  Tell him that if he has information concerning Cerberus or Pira that he should give it freely or not at all.  I’m not letting him back me into a corner or put me in his pocket.  So fuck you very much.”

Charlie set the cup down on the table and collected her jacket from the back of the chair.  She was a few steps away from the café when her omni-tool beeped with an incoming message.  Charlie forced her stride to stay constant and didn’t look down at the message until she was safely in the elevator.

There was no sender information or personal message.  There was only a file that contained the location of Pira Kyrnee.  Charlie slumped against the side of the elevator and breathed in relief.  She hadn’t actually been playing Barla Von back at the café.  She had every intention of not pursuing the information.  The thought of getting wrapped up in the vicious mind games of that massive yahg chilled her blood.  The very last thing Charlie Nacht wanted was to be noticed by him and she shuddered at the thought of how her inevitable file read.

This was not the first time she had had her suspicions about Cerberus’ involvement in the case.  Charlie had written off the thoughts about them as lingering feelings of the game, but now it there was a strong possibility that they were to blame.  The ‘why’ was eating at her though.  This was elaborate and expensive and Charlie could not think of a reason for it.  Of course there was money to be made with running the drug dealings in Kithoi Ward, but that didn’t feel right.  Shouldn’t there be a better reason than that?  Also it was so public.  Every slaughter that was added to the list made every headline and it was building up to mass hysteria over the rampant crime.  Citizens on the Citadel liked to believe that they lived on the safe station where drug use was minimal and only affected the poor or the young.  But a good portion of the attacks had been in expensive venues.  The media was now focusing on every small crime that passed through the doors of C-Sec and the public was opening their eyes to the problem.  This would normally be a good thing, but instead of working to fix it, they were panicking and moving to another ward. 

Charlie growled in frustration as she marched through the hall of C-Sec to Executor Pallin’s office.  She couldn’t accuse Cerberus, not yet.  She didn’t have any proof about their involvement and the only “facts” she had about them came from a video game.  For all that she knew they weren’t half as influential and evil as the story had made them out to be.  Hell, the Illusive Man may not even exist.  She had always thought it was a silly name anyways. 

She paused outside of the large metal door and composed herself.  It would not help matters to barge in to his office fuming.  Charlie fixed her short braid and adjusted her jacket before she opened the door.

“Nacht.”  Pallin’s greeting was short and motioned to a chair.

“Executor, I have the location of Pila Kyrnee and I’d like to have a detail with me when I go.”

Pallin slowly looked up from the datapad he had been reading.  “Did you submit a Zeta-9?”

Charlie grasped the arm of the chair to keep her hand from twitching.  “You know I didn’t.  I don’t know how old this information is and I need to move quickly.  You can open that door for me.”

“Actually I can’t.  It would be a gross abuse of my authority and _you_ know that.”

Her hand betrayed her and she pinched the bridge of her nose.  “Last time I filed a Zeta-9 it took a week to process and that was after I lost 500 credits and box of turian chocolates.  I don’t have the time or patience for that.  Look I’m not saying that I won’t file one, I will.  I’m on my way to my desk to do so right now, but I need you to push it through.”

Pallin let out a long sigh.  “Where did this information come from?”

This was the question Charlie had been dreading.  “My own sources, sir.”

“I take it that this ‘source’ has had the proper documentation filled out and is credible?”

“If he was credible, then I would have referred to him as a citizen and the information as a ‘tip’.  I’m not going to lie about it.  We all have informants on the streets and not all of them like to be known.”

Pallin tapped the table.  “Do you have any legal reason to bring Ms. Kyrnee in?”

“Well if this information is correct than she has illegally taken up residence in a false basement.  I’m sure that the Housing Authority would like to know about that.  Other than that, I would like to question her on her whereabouts during the murder of Draven Ellonius.”

“And that’s all you want to talk about?  I wasn’t aware that she was a lead suspect in that case.”

“We both know who she really is so let’s cut the crap, sir.  I need to know what she knows about this farkakte turf war.  Pira Kyrnee is the only person I know who can answer that.  She’s in the Kithoi Ward right now, but I don’t know for how much longer.  If I were her I would be constantly changing locations and she’s a lot more paranoid than I am.”

“I’m sorry, Nacht.  This has to go through the proper channels and we need to trust the system.”

“God damn it all, Pallin.”  Charlie’s notoriously short patience had burned up.  She stood up and towered over the still seated turian.  “The system has fucking dirty cops in it.  If I let the Intelligence men see this, she’ll be gone before I could hail a cab and go in alone.  You know that I’m a fan of the rules, but this is fucking ridiculous.  What am I supposed to do here?”

Pallin’s voice turned low and dangerous.  “That’s enough, Nacht.  Now go fill out the appropriate forms and I’ll see how quickly I can turn this around, but I do not need a pissy detective telling me how to do my job.  What do you think you are the first cop to deal with the system?  Like you’re something special?  The only person who can see the cracks?  Well I’ll tell you something, you’re not.  So stop bitching and walk straight, it’s the only way to keep from getting mud on your clothes.”

“I’m trying to do my damn job and the cracks are stopping me.  Do you think that I don’t want to be a good little detective and follow the rules?  I fucking do.  This is how we have always danced in here.  I bitch at you and follow the rules; you yell at me and bend them a little.  I’m fucking tired, Pallin.”

Pallin’s attention drifted back to the pad laying on his desk and he softened his tone ever so slightly.  “Not everything is a personal affront to you, Nacht.  Take a step back and breathe some time.  People die, criminals commit crimes, and some cops have gambling debts; the cracks aren’t there to personally piss you off.  They just exist.  So stop peeling your scales and get over it.  Don’t fucking burn out on me.”  He punctuated the last sentence with a stern look into Charlie’s eyes. 

The entire way back to her desk, Charlie typed out the Zeta-9 form.  It really did piss her off.  Kyrnee was going to flee or worse the human group would get the location leaked to them first and they would kill her.  She flopped down into her desk chair with a loud growl and waited for Chellick to say something.  When he didn’t respond to her presence she kicked the back of his chair. 

Chellick slowly turned the chair around and feigned surprise at seeing Charlie there.  “So, how the meeting go?”  He asked with a grin.

Charlie’s response was a glare.

“That well, huh?”

She continued her glare.

Chellick tapped the side of his face and looked thoughtful.  “That’s funny, because I could have sworn that we were partners.  I mean we share this lovely office and all.  Of course they could have put me in here as a punishment.  Either way, I think you owe me more of an explanation.”

So Charlie told him the story, leaving out certain bits regarding her conversation with Barla Von.  She didn’t feel like explaining her knowledge of Cerberus and the Shadow Broker to her partner, because Chellick was a good detective and he would definitely ask. 

When she finished, Chellick asked.  “How much do you think discretion would cost us?”

Charlie snorted.  “More than we could afford.  We’d be bidding against Kyrnee, after all.”

“Damn.”

“Our hands are tied here and it’s up to fate to see if we actually get her.”

Maybe this time the roulette wheel would land on letting only honest eyes see the information, Charlie pondered.  She decided that that was a technical impossibility.

 

* * *

 

 

Three days later Pallin surprised Charlie by giving her permission to bring in Kyrnee.  Charlie got the eight man squad and briefed them on the mission.

“The goal of this mission is to bring Kyrnee in alive for questioning.  I do not want a single shot fired.  If all goes well Chellick and I will walk in and walk back out with Kyrnee.  This is not a drug bust and we will not be searching the premises.  This is a suspect pickup.  Under no circumstances are we to fire the first shot and you will not proceed aggressively unless Detective Chellick or I give the order.  Is that understood?”

There was a round of “Yes, ma’am” from the group of skilled men and then she opened the floor for questions.  Less than an hour later, they arrived at the building.  The street was quiet, which was only slightly suspicious for the neighborhood.  Charlie and Chellick approached the door together.  The squad a few steps behind them. 

The front door was unlocked, which was definitely suspicious and that was when Charlie allowed herself the first twinge of anger.  The first floor was dark, but they quickly spotted the body lying on the ground. 

Charlie directed four of the men to the upper levels for a sweep and had the rest of them follow her and Chellick to the hidden basement.  Every “basement” on the Citadel was actually part of the keeper tunnels.  They were claimed from the keepers by erecting false walls which would mean the keepers themselves would put actual walls in place and redirect their tunnels around the space.  Then the builders would enlarge the space and form a room.  It was highly illegal to do so, but it was still a fairly common practice.

The trail of bodies led them to the basement and by the time Charlie opened the final door, it was painfully clear that there had been a leak in the department.  Everyone was dead.  She found Kyrnee slumped behind a desk that she had been using as cover.  Charlie was pissed.

“Son of a fucking bitch!”  She yelled as she kicked the desk. 

“Nacht, calm down.  We knew this was a possibility.  The rival gang got here first.”  Chellick placed a cautious hand on her shoulder. 

Charlie shrugged it off and motioned towards Kyrnee’s dead corpse.  “Does this look like their M.O.?  Huh, Chellick?  This wasn’t the fucking rival gang.  Somebody call fucking homicide and get them here.”  Charlie opened her omni-tool and ran a quick scan on the dead bodies. 

“Son of a motherfucking bitch.  This was a Spectre hit.  Spectre issue weapons.  I’m going to kill that bastard.”  Charlie moved quickly to the computer console at the desk.  The drive was wiped and non-restorable.  “Chellick, get your coat.  We’re paying a visit to an old _friend._ ”

Charlie swept out of the room with Chellick on her heels as he put the call into the station.  The ride to Citadel Tower was brief and silent.  The only sound was the grating noise coming from Charlie’s teeth as she ground them in her mouth.  Chellick was silently typing on his omni-tool as he kept C-Sec appraised of the situation.  Charlie had been so good the past few months.  She had kept her poorly bridled rage in check and had followed all of the rules.  Well most of the rules.  Alright, she followed some of the rules.  Spectre involvement was too much though.  This was the final crack in her flimsy façade.  Charlie felt the rage wash over her and instead of tamping it down, she fed it.  She nursed it with all of the political roadblocks that had ever sprung up in front of her.  All of the bullshit that she dealt with on an almost daily basis were thrown into the roaring fire and the emotion consumed her.

Charlie marched through the halls to the Spectre headquarters; she hadn’t bothered to remove her riot gear so she looked particularly terrifying and sent a couple secretaries scrambling out of her path.  She stopped in front of the door with the Spectre logo emblazoned across it and raised her fist to pound on the metal.

 

* * *

 

 

Garrus was in a particularly foul mood this morning.  He had spent most of the previous day cleaning up after a Spectre approved mission.  It was tedious work, because vast amount of paperwork that was involved in the mess.  Technically it meant that he didn’t need to solve anything, but it just made him feel like a maid.  It was degrading.  At least, he thought, Charlie had a much worse day.  He was actually on his way to check on her now.  Garrus had tried calling her last night, but she hadn’t picked up the call.  It was aggravating when she did that and he had almost gone over to her apartment, but he had decided to leave her alone.  Charlie was starting to really get on his nerves lately.  She was bitchier than was usual, because how tightly wound she made herself and he really didn’t feel like spending the night dealing with a shouting match.

Garrus entered her department’s floor and saw Chellick standing by the small kitchenette.  Chellick waved him over. 

“How is she?”  Garrus’ voice was low, in case Charlie was nearby.

Chellick shifted his feet nervously and scratched at the back of his neck. 

“That bad?  Is she here?  Tell me she didn’t do something stupid and got written up.”  Garrus had been dreading the call that Charlie had finally snapped and crossed a serious line.  A year ago he never would have thought he would be worried about her career, but lately Charlie had been toeing a dangerous line.

“No, nothing like that.”  Chellick assured him quickly.  “Just … I don’t know how to tell you this.  Alright I know that you’ve been chasing her for a while and …”

“What are you talking about?”  This was not what he had been expecting from the male.  “I don’t want Charlie.  Spirits, Chellick, what the hell happened?”

Chellick looked incredibly relieved.  “Oh you don’t?  Thank the spirits, anyways she in the office.  You’ll see when you get in there.”

Garrus gave him a confused look, but hurried into Charlie’s office.  Today was only getting odder.

Charlie was sitting at her desk calmly typing out a report.  There was the faintest hint of a smile on her lips, but the most notable difference in her appearance was her posture.  Lately she had been hunched over her desk, a growl on her lips, and every muscle tense, but now she was relaxed and … was she humming? 

Garrus shook his head and gave a soft rap on the doorframe to announce his presence.  Charlie swiveled around in her chair and gave him the most genuine smile he had seen on her in months. 

“Hello, Garrus.”

“Um … hello, Charlie.”  Garrus was now completely confused.  Was she on drugs?  Was that how she had snapped?  This was not good.  He scanned her for any clues to help him reason out the sudden shift in personality.  Her hands looked a little rough, but it was difficult to say if there were any new scars added to plethora of existing ones.  The rolled up sleeves showed dark bruises around her wrists.  They looked like someone had gripped them roughly, but again this was Charlie and she did get into her fair share of fights.  His eyes continued to drift upwards and came to rest at the slightly open neck of her shirt.  Garrus walked over to move the shirt open a little more, before he could stop himself.  There was a curved line of turian bite marks where her neck met the shoulder. 

“What the fuck?”  Garrus exclaimed before he could think of something more eloquent.

 

Charlie tilted her head and gave him a bemused smile.  “I would have thought that you of all people would know what those were.”

“I know what they are, but what … who?  Chellick?”

Charlie screwed her face into disgust and gave an exaggerated shiver.  “Oh god, no.  Also Jenna would kill me.  Here sit down.”

Garrus took Chellick’s empty chair and looked at her.  He wasn’t upset, just … surprised and a little worried about her.  Why wouldn’t she have told him that she was dating someone and who was it?  It’s not like she knew that many people very well.  Everyone was a work colleague.

“So who is it?”  Garrus tentatively asked her.

Charlie squirmed in her chair and glanced at the ceiling.  “Kryik.”

Garrus almost stood up again, but caught himself this time.  “I seem to recall you hating him.”

Some of the old fire crept back into her eyes.  “I still hate the bastard.  I’m sure you know what he did yesterday?”  When Garrus nodded his head, she continued.  “I’m still pissed at him over it, too.  The sex wasn’t _that_ good.”

A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth after the last sentence and her eyes slightly glazed over.  Garrus, if it was possible, felt even more confused.  “I don’t understand.  Let me try and get this straight.  You hate the man and are currently pissed at him, yet you are dating him?”

Charlie smirked and steepled her fingers in front of her lips. “Dating?  No, we just had sex.  We are definitely not dating.  I guess you might call it a business fuck.  We had an argument, a few punches may have been thrown, and then … you know.”  Charlie spread her hands apart and shrugged.

Garrus drew his eyebrow plates close together.  The story did not make sense.  Maybe for someone who wasn’t Charlie Nacht, but she usually followed up punches with more punches.  He knew, because he had been the recipient of some of those punches. 

“Alright so here’s what happened.  Don’t worry I’m giving you the clean version.  No nudity.”  She laughed at the slightly horrified face Garrus had made. “Yesterday … well you know what happened with Kyrnee.  So, I dragged Chellick to the Spectre offices to have a word with Kryik, since I was pretty sure it was him.  I knocked on the door and …”

“You had sex with Spectre Nihlus Kryik in the Spectre office?”  Garrus interrupted her, slightly horrified and impressed.

Charlie rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated explosion of air.  “What?  No, that would have been ridiculous.  Not to mention that it would have been awkward; people work there, Garrus.  Now are you going to let me tell the story?”

Garrus nodded and she continued.

 

* * *

 

 

**The previous day …**

“There’s a comm. panel right there Nacht.”  Chellick commented.

“That bastard can hear me just fine.”  Charlie growled and continued pound her fist against the door.

The door abruptly slid open and revealed the tall brown plated turian with elaborate white tattoos.  The turian caught Charlie’s fist which was still in mid swing towards the door.  Charlie wasted no time and sending her left fist for his face, which he also caught.  She was not about to be denied her revenge in the form of physical violence.  She was far too blinded by rage at this Spectre.  So Charlie raised her leg and caught him firmly at the waist with a heavy kick. 

“You fucking arrogant bastard.  You killed her!”  Charlie’s voice was a scream as they struggled against each other.  Kryik got a solid hit against her side before Chellick pulled her off of the Spectre. 

“Let me go, Chellick.  I’m going to kill him.”  The anger seemed to rip itself from her lungs and Charlie was not positive that all the words she meant to say were vocalized.

“Yeah, that’s not going to make me let you go.”  Chellick responded dryly in her ear.

Nihlus looked at her and propped himself casually against the doorframe.  “I’m assuming your panties are in a bunch over the fate of the known drug lord, Pira Kyrnee?  I’m sorry was I supposed to check with you before I went about my Council sanctioned mission?” 

“Sorry, Chellick.”  Charlie whispered before she drove a heel into his shin and tore away from his grasp. 

Once free she threw herself at Nihlus.  Charlie may have been blinded by rage at the cocky turian, but she was still a highly trained fighter.  The skirmish that followed proved that Nihlus Kryik was not only an extremely skilled fighter, as well, but possibly a better one.  Charlie ended up with her face against the wall and her arms and legs locked firmly behind her. 

“I needed to question her.  There’s more at stake here than the current drug lord of the Kithoi Ward, such as who the next one will be.  We could have worked together.”  Charlie grunted out into the metallic wall.

“I don’t answer to you.”  Nihlus growled in her ear.

“No, you don’t.  You just listen to my leaky office and steal my information.  Did you even question why they needed to die or did you just follow orders like a good little soldier?”

Charlie couldn’t prevent the wince that came from his sharp twist of her arm.

“Did you really think that you were just going to walk into her hiding place and ask her some polite questions, Nacht?  You saw how many armed guards she had.  Kyrnee wasn’t going anywhere with you.  I can’t believe you aren’t here to ask me what was on the computer.  Maybe you’re more of an idiot than I thought.”

“You shouldn’t have the power to walk in and start shooting.  There were no charges against her.  As far as the law is concerned, she was innocent until proven guilty.  You’re a murderer.”

“We both know that there was nothing innocent about her or the Lemures.”  He growled.

“Fine, then how about you just did Cerberus a huge favor and gave them control over Kithoi Ward.”  Charlie spat the words.

Nihlus loosened his hold and stepped back from her.  “What are you talking about?”

Charlie turned around to face him and slowly worked feeling back into her arms.  “My current theory has the ‘turf war’ funded by everyone’s favorite terrorist group, Cerberus.”

“Do you have proof of this?”

“Did you have proof on Pira Kyrnee?”  She countered.

Charlie turned around and walked back to the open door.  She could hear Nihlus closely following her out.  She muttered under her breath so that Nihlus would subconsciously lean his face down closer to her.  “Sorry about the face.”

At the end of the sentence, Charlie spun and sucker punched Spectre Nihlus Kryik in the side of face.  Then she briskly walked out of the door and quickly left through the hall.  He did not pursue her.

 

* * *

 

 

**Present day**

 

“Wait, you punched Kryik in the face?”  Garrus asked in terrified awe.

“Oh good, you were keeping up.”  Charlie grinned.  “In my defense, he _was_ being an arrogant jerk.  Also he cracked one of my ribs.”

“You attacked him first!” 

“He killed Pira Kyrnee.”

“He’s a Spectre!”

“Huh, that’s what he said too.  Anyways, the point is he bothered me and I was … not in a good place at the time.”

Garrus’ face turned serious.  “Kryik could have taken your badge.  That was extremely foolish, Charlotte.”

Charlie ran her fingers through her hair, thoroughly destroying the braid.  “Yeah, I know.  But like I said … I was … not handling things very well.”

“That’s an understatement.”  Chellick said dryly from the door.

“So, no details please, but how did this go from that to you sleeping with him?”

Charlie shrugged and simply said.  “He stopped by the apartment later.  Look it was just business sex.  It’s not like I love him, actually quite the opposite.  Why do you have such a problem with this?  Have you never had ‘just sex’ before?”

Garrus stirred uncomfortably in his chair and fidgeted with his hands.  “Of course I have.  There was this one time back on the ship.  We were chasing these batarian pirates and the entire crew was on edge.  This … recon scout and I were having some issues, so we decided to settle our differences on the mat.  Brutal match, it went nine rounds before they finally called it a tie.”

Garrus looked up to see Charlie attempting to hold in her laughter with her hands.  “A recon scout, you said?”

Garrus shifted in his chair again.  “Uh … yeah.”

Charlie eventually lost the battle with her hands and the laughter spilled out of her.  When it finally died down, she wiped the tears from her eyes.  “Oh Garrus, you should not try and lie to someone who is good friends with your ex-girlfriend.  First of all, Cecilia Modius has always been an engineer.  Secondly, I have either greatly over-estimated your skills or under-estimated hers if you two had a sparring match last _nine rounds_.  As I’ve seen you both fight.  I’m going to go ahead and say ‘bullshit’.  Also I will take that as a ‘no’ and you have never had casual sex.”

“I’m so pleased that your good mood hasn’t made you any kinder to your supposed ‘best friend’.”  Garrus growled at her.

Charlie flashed him a wicked smile.  “Stop it, you love me.”

Garrus dramatically covered his eyes with a hand.  “Probably, spirits help me.”  

 

* * *

 

 

**The previous evening …**

Chellick had threatened to shoot Charlie if she didn’t take the rest of the day off.  She knew it was bad, because her partner hated paperwork as much as she did and he was volunteering to do all of it for the day.  Charlie relented and trudged home begrudgingly.  She wanted to bury her brain in work, so she wouldn’t have to think anymore.  Thinking only left her with too many questions and not enough answers to spread around.  On the way to her apartment, she picked up a bottle of wine for the evening.  She probably shouldn’t be drinking on a work night, but it was only one bottle. 

At her apartment, Charlie stripped off her work clothes with a vengeance.  As if they had personally offended her.  She settled for wearing a small sleeveless tank top and a pair of white underwear.  Then she sprawled out on the couch and tried to find something to watch on the vid screen. 

The knock at the door interrupted her solitude.  Charlie growled and marched over to the offending sound.  She briefly considered putting some clothes on, but it was probably just Garrus.  She tabbed the door to slide it open.

The wine she had been consuming had dulled her anger enough that she didn’t hit him, but Charlie did have to cross her arms to keep her fists from forming.

“You broke my face.”  Nihlus Kryik unceremoniously stated.

“You broke my ribs.”  She retorted.

They stared at each other for a while and Charlie realized that other than today, the last time she had seen Kryik had been almost three years ago.  It had also been dark and he had been in a disguise.  Charlie found that she liked the white tattoos much better than the purple slashes.  They complimented his warm brown plating.  That particular shade of brown was rather uncommon for turians, but it was almost a human coloring and Charlie actually liked it.  Though she would never admit it.  She would also never admit that Nihlus was probably the most dangerous turian she had ever met and that intrigued her.

“Why are you here?”  Charlie asked, after she felt the silence had stretched on long enough.

“I came to bring the files I extracted from Kyrnee’s console.”  His voice had dipped to a lower tone than was usual for him.

“Bullshit, that’s not why you’re here.  You could have just sent those to me.”  Charlie wasn’t sure why something about his presence made her feel uneasy.  It wasn’t just uneasy though; there was a secondary feeling there as well … expectant?

“I came over to discuss your suspicions about Cerberus.”  He quickly and smoothly responded.

“Bullshit again, you’ve already researched my claim and you either agree with me or you don’t.  There’s nothing to discuss with me, because, as you have already stated, you don’t answer to me.”

Nihlus took a step into the apartment and tabbed the door close.  He was standing very close to Charlie, but she stood her ground and glared at him defiantly.  “Why are you here?”  She repeated.

“You know why I’m here.”  The words rumbled from his chest and he was standing so close that Charlie could feel the vibrations prickle her flesh.

Charlie was caught between two differing emotions, but she was still leaning heavily towards starting a fight.  So her response was silence.

“You started a fight in my office today and you left before I could finish it.  I’m here to do that.”  Not breaking eye contact, Nihlus ran a talon from Charlie’s hip up to the curve of her waist. 

Charlie managed to suppress the shudder that threatened to take her and snatched his offending wrist and twisted it into a lock.  Then she brought her other hand up to push him away, but he caught her wrist this time.  He drove her against the wall and raised her arms above her head, pressing his body firmly against hers.  Nihlus dipped his head down into the crook of her neck and nipped at the tender flesh there.  Charlie couldn’t stop the breathy moan that slipped through her lips and Nihlus chuckled triumphantly. 

She growled a very turian warning growl and draped her legs over his hip bones and drew him closer.  He immediately obeyed and pressed into her.  Charlie then twisted and sent the two of them to the floor with her landing on top of him.

The rest of the evening was spent the same violent way.  Both of them struggled for dominance and neither was afraid to draw blood.  It was passionate, but not full of passion for each other just passionate because they were both on edge and they found the same frustrations mirrored in the other. 

Charlie drew first blood when she ran a hard nail against the sensitive skin under Nihlus’ fringe.  Nihlus responded by bending her over kitchen counter and pinning her in place with his teeth.  It was rougher than Charlie had ever had in the past, but it was also exactly what she wanted.  She learned many interesting things about the male turian anatomy that night.

There were some things that they didn’t do.  They did not kiss, cuddle, or embrace each other.  Nihlus also did not stay the night.  When they eventually wore each other and lay panting on the living room floor; Nihlus rose, put on his slightly damaged clothes, and then silently left.  Charlie found that she was far too exhausted to move and pulled a cushion off the couch and went to sleep there on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What was that? Did I just write a little bit of smut? *blushes* Oh dear, I think I may have. Anyways, I'm going to try and get on a schedule again and keep pumping out chapters. Because I like it and I have this whole story in my head that won't shut up until it hits paper. Honestly I want you to imagine Charlie living in your head. She might be hilarious, but she's also crazy.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of didn't realize how long this update was until I had edited. So, this is the longest update so far and coincidentally is also the beginning of the longest story arc. I'm so happy you all had such kind words for the return of this story. It made me feel so bubbly and giddy inside. I hope you all enjoy this update. :)

It was amazing to Charlie that she felt so much better after that night.  Oh, she was still angry about the Kithoi Ward incident, but now it was more of a passionate drive to fix the situation.  Before it had been eating at her mind and she had been lashing out at everyone.  Now she had calmed down and was actually using logic and reason.

 

Charlie didn’t see Nihlus again for a while, but he did send her the information from Kyrnee’s console like he promised.  It wasn’t that informative or helpful and it appeared that the turian female was even more paranoid than Charlie gave her credit for.  The only information that was of any use was a couple of locations for stash houses and some codenames of a few members of the Lemures.  This led to some drug busts and Pallin tried to spin this for the media so it appeared that C-Sec was back in control.  However none of the officers were actually fool enough to believe that this counted as a victory.  The Lemures were done, but the human group set up shop and eventually called themselves The Abyss. 

 

Crime in Kithoi Ward died down for a while, but The Abyss slowly gained more members, all of which were human, and started to terrorize the ward again.  In addition to selling Sand the gang was also responsible for robberies, mugging, unsanctioned prostitution, and smuggling weapons.  They weren’t even quiet about it; they all but shouted their activities through the wards.  The most frustrating part about The Abyss was that no matter how many members they arrested, there were always more out there.  Charlie wasn’t even sure they had a head to the organization.  What she needed was to find out where they were getting their funding.

 

Aside from work, life was going well for Charlie.  Grace had been excelling in school and biotic training.  The teachers and doctors were not sure how the teenager was able to use her biotics without the implant, but Grace’s powers had greatly improved.  Charlie had been informed that the doctor’s latest theory postulated that the tumor-like organ that had developed within Grace was acting like a natural form of implant.  Her control over her biotics had also vastly improved and there had been no more incidents of accidental usage of her powers.  This had lead to Dr. Sanders to give Grace permission to leave the station for a break on Earth.

 

\--

 

**May 2177**

 

 

“I’m telling you it’s going to be far too hot in Florida.”  Charlie groaned again at Garrus.

 

“I would have thought that a native Floridian could handle her own home’s weather.  You don’t hear me complaining about the radiation in Cipritine.”

 

“Do you know what muggy is, Garrus?”  Charlie responded dread and horror carefully etched in her tone.

 

“Based off the context of our other conversations, I would hazard that it’s hot and humid weather.”  Garrus drawled.

 

“Sol is not your friend; it is your sworn enemy.  It means that nothing can make the heat better, shade refuses to work properly.  The air is heavy with stifling heat and water; I definitely do not miss it.  The heat isn’t even the worst part, the bugs are.  I guess mosquitoes won’t be a problem for you though. ” She looked over Garrus’ plates.

 

Garrus briefly looked down at his omni-tool for a description.  “Tiny, flying insects that feed on levo-based blood; I don’t see that being a problem.  Even if they could get through my skin, they wouldn’t live that long.”

 

Charlie shook her head at his luck, and then a sudden sharpness formed around her eyes.  “You know, maybe I should take you out for a dip in one of our springs.  I’m sure the Ichnetucknee is still open and this is an excellent time of year to go.”

 

Garrus gave Charlie a disparaging look.  “You are well aware of how turians feel about water.”

 

“Yes, I know, I know, lots of flailing and drowning.  But the only thing to do in Florida during the summer is get in the water and the spring’s water is always 72 degrees Fahrenheit.  Besides you don’t really swim in it, you just float.  Like in an inflatable tube.”

 

Garrus narrowed his eyes at her.  “Why are you pushing this, Charlie?”

 

Charlie giggled and gave him her most “innocent” smile, which was absolutely terrifying.  “Look up the wildlife in Florida.”

 

Garrus spent the next few minutes searching on his omni-tool.  His face went slack as he read off a list.  “Spirits, that thing is huge.”

 

Charlie peeked at the vid footage of a very large alligator.  “Yeah, but mostly you just see the small ones and they’re only 3-5 feet.  I mean I guess you could lose a hand to them.”

 

“I wasn’t aware that the wildlife on Earth came in a plated variety.”  Garrus mused as he scrolled through the images.

 

Charlie snorted.  “Why do you think I’m always making dinosaur comments at your expense?”

 

Garrus face turned sharply toward Charlie.  His small impossibly blue eyes narrowed and his plates drew tight against his face.  “You have never said anything like that to me.”

 

Charlie felt trapped by his scrutiny for a moment before she placed a finger on her chin and replied.  “Oh, then I guess I said that behind your back.”

 

Garrus looked like he was going to add something, but instead he shook his head and muttered.  “Racist.”

 

“Anyways”  Charlie continued.  “Yes, Florida has some … interesting wildlife, but I wasn’t really expecting this sort of reaction from you.  Doesn’t Palaven also have some terrifying natives?”  A smirk grew on her face as Garrus glared at her and patiently waited for her to finish the sentence.  “And also some wildlife?”

 

His eyes were rolling before she finished the question and he responded in his gravelly voice over her inane giggles.  “Yes, but anything potentially dangerous is kept to strictly maintained zones.  It’s as much for their protection as it is for ours.  You’ve actually swam with these creatures?” 

 

“Well yes.  It’s not that big of a deal there.  You just move out of the way and thank god you can actually see it.  I mean they aren’t particularly vicious.  Cottonmouths and alligator snapping turtles are really the dangers.” 

 

He typed in the command into the orange screen and then looked oddly at Charlie.  “Charlie, it says here that the turtles been extinct in the wild for the past hundred years and there are only a few left in captivity.”

 

Charlie grabbed Garrus’ arm and looked at the scrolling information.  He was right.  “Oh.”  She simply said.

 

Garrus wisely decided against pointing out the inconsistency in Charlie’s story, mostly because this was not the first time he had noticed one.  His sharp eyes did not miss the familiar shuttered look that passed over her face.

 

They were on a shuttle to Elysium where they would transfer to a shuttle to the Grissom Academy station.  The temple that Charlie had previously found for Grace’s Bat Mitzvah on Earth had welcomed them again for another attempt at the ceremony.  Charlie couldn’t help the excitement building in her at the prospect of returning home to Florida.  She knew it wouldn’t be the same, but it was still Earth and it had been her home for twenty-five years.  Perhaps the wildlife had changed, but surely the cities couldn’t have.  Especially some of the older ones, such as St. Augustine, would still be preserved.

 

The large shuttle shook as it entered Elysium’s atmosphere.  Charlie and Garrus gathered their bags and were ready to leave to make the connecting flight when the shuttle touched down.

 

“Attention: Any individuals waiting on departing flight 8443 bound for Jon Grissom Academy, please make your way to a staff member.”  An overhead speaker informed them.  The message repeated two more times.

 

Charlie and Garrus looked at each other and found the same emotion written on each other’s face, nervousness.  The pair left the shuttle and approached the first staff member they found.  The young woman was smiling, but she appeared to be as curious as the two of them felt.  They were escorted to a small room in the back of the terminal.  There were a few more people pacing the room, which contained a few scattered chairs and couches, as well as some truly horrendous art reproductions.

 

Charlie stopped moving when she noticed that a couple of the women were crying and everyone appeared to be shell-shocked. 

 

“Are you family members or staff?”  A young man in an Alliance uniform asked her.

 

“Family, I have a daughter on the station.” 

 

The man looked at Garrus questioningly, but apparently decided better of it and didn’t repeat the question.

 

“Alright ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to remain here.  There has been an attack on the station and we’re keeping family members in a secured location.”

 

Charlie opened her mouth in shock and then clicked it shut and switched to her “cop face”.  “What information do we have at the moment?”

 

“I’m sorry ma’am; I’m not at liberty to say.  The most I can tell you is, at the present time, there have been no casualties in the student body.  The Alliance is handling negotiations; we’ll get them out of there.”

 

A man who had been steadily pacing the room walked briskly over to the soldier and said.  “We’ve been in here for over a half hour.  When is someone who is able to talk to us going to show up?  I am Reg Peters and all three of my children are on that station.  This is outrageous!”  The man was visibly shaking when he finished speaking and the soldier was clearly at a loss on how to handle the situation.

 

More of the family members started to gather around in a semi circle, as if the closeness of their presence would encourage the young soldier to tell them what was happening.  Charlie looked at the young man and saw the panic in his eyes.  She also saw that he was definitely not going to tell them, either because he was going to follow orders or because he didn’t actually know.  Charlie entered a few commands into her omni-tool remotely and said.  “It’s going to be alright, folks.  If you would take your seats, I’m sure that we’ll find out what’s happening very soon.”  She turned to the soldier.  “Why don’t you step outside and give these people some space?”

 

The soldier looked longingly at the door and replied.  “I’m supposed to keep an eye on them.”

 

Charlie smiled warmly at him.  “I’m C-Sec detective.”  She flashed her credentials on her omni-tool.  “I probably have a little more experience with handling these kinds of situations.  That’s the only door in and out of this room.  Why don’t you stand guard out there and I’ll take it from here?”

 

The soldier looked gratefully at Charlie and moved to the exit, but she caught his arm in a firm armclasp.  The friendly gesture went on a little longer than was strictly necessary as Charlie typed with her right hand behind her back.  She was extremely grateful that she had activated her omni-glasses before they had arrived in the room.  It might have seemed suspicious to do so now.

 

Charlie eventually released the man’s arm and he left the room.  As soon as the door was closed she turned to the crowd.  “Alright we have a few minutes now.  I’m C-Sec Detective Charlie Nacht and this is Detective Garrus Vakarian.  I need to know right now if any of you have a problem with me finding out and sharing with you news of what’s happening on the station.”

 

The man who had introduced himself as Peters spoke first.  “I don’t care how you have to do it, I need to know what’s happening.”  Everyone else in the room repeated the same sentiment. 

 

Charlie nodded her head once and pulled up her omni-tool interface on her arm.  Garrus leaned over and spoke quietly into her ear.  “I take it you ‘tagged’ him?”

 

Charlie snorted under her breath.  “Remind me to send a thank you card to the duct rats.”

 

“Tagging” was essentially a harmless hobby of the youth on the Citadel.  The game was to upload a phishing virus to an unsuspecting “mark”.  The most common form of this virus would simply broadcast a symbol of the youth who had tagged him.  The more impressive and wealthy the tagged individual was, the more people would see the tag.  Now in its simplest form, tagging was just a harmless game.  However, it wasn’t too difficult to make it into a more insidious virus.  Essentially the phishing virus convinced the user’s omni-tool that it was a software update and is given limited access to the device.  It was fairly common to use this to hack into bank accounts or steal an identity.  The software companies were constantly updating their security systems to prevent this from happening, but Charlie was also on top of those updates and her tagging program was fairly unique. 

 

All she wanted from the soldier was his identity and omni-tool codes.  She then used those codes to make her tool a temporary clone of his own and went to work looking for information on the Grissom Academy attack.

 

“Alright folks, I have an update.”  Charlie announced to the room in a low voice.  “42 minutes ago, Grissom Academy was attacked by turian extremists.”  There were a few sharp intakes of breath and Charlie looked up to see that the crowd was staring at Garrus.  “The exact group is unknown, but it appears that they may have originated from Nanus.  They are currently listing their demands or threatening to kill the students.  Huh.”  Charlie stared at the screen mutely. 

 

“Charlotte, what is it?”  Garrus asked her.

 

“The Alliance is giving into them.”

 

Peters spoke up.  “Well that’s a good thing, isn’t it?  We want our children back and that might be the only way to do it.”

 

Charlie and Garrus shared a wary look.  “Actually, that is not the right tactic for turians.”  Garrus said.  “I would bet credits that the terrorists only made contact to voice their mission objectives and someone in the Alliance asked them what their demands were.  A turian, especially ones like these, will not accept defeat and they’ll view a bribe as a surrender.  The Alliance is going to look very weak if they go through with this and that will only strengthen the view of humans in the terrorists’ eyes.”

 

A woman who still had the remnants of tears in her eyes said, “So what do we do then?”

 

“Strike team.”  Charlie said, “Hit ‘em hard and hit ‘em fast.  It’s the only way to handle turian terrorists.  I can’t find if one is being planned by the Alliance, the soldier’s clearance isn’t high enough.”

 

“What is the Alliance giving them?”  Garrus asked.

 

Charlie flicked the screen.  “Looks like they are going to trade two of the non-biotic students for a hard line into a comm buoy, a vid recording device, and an untraceable credit chit.”

 

“How are they sending it?”

 

“Unmanned shuttle, it’s lifting off in an hour.” 

 

Garrus moved to the bags and started unpacking his armor.  “Alright, that’s how we’re getting on the station.”

 

Charlie lowered her arm and furiously said.  “We can’t get on that shuttle.  I don’t have clearance and I have no idea how I’m sneaking a seven and half foot tall turian on to the base.”

 

Garrus didn’t stop his movements, but he looked up at her.  “In your opinion, are the terrorists going to make good on their threat to kill the students?”

 

“Yes.”  Charlie massaged her temples, her tone eked with grim dread.  “Unless the Alliance is planning on hiding a squad in the shuttle, which the terrorists will be expecting and shoot down, they will definitely follow through with the plan.”

 

“Do you think the Alliance is planning to do that?”

 

She shook her head slowly.  “From the chatter I read, no.  They’re treating the terrorists like they’re human.  It’s a mistake and probably one that they’ll catch too late.”

 

Garrus handed Charlie her suit of light armor.  “So, we are going to go.  We have to, Grace is there.”

 

“Damn it, Garrus.  That doesn’t solve the question of how we are going to pull this off.”

 

Garrus rubbed his eyes with the pads of his fingers.  “We don’t have the authority, but you know someone who does.  You need to call Nihlus.”

 

Charlie gaped at the turian and then grabbed his arm to drag him away from the others.  Her voice was a furious whisper.  “First of all, he’s not here; I think he’s still on Illium.  So any authorization I got from him would be to use his Spectre codes.  Second of all, he’s not here.  So we would be using Spectre authority without one present and that is impersonating a Spectre.  You _know_ that that is an extremely serious charge.  At best, that is career ending.  At worst, that’s life in prison.  Let’s count off the felonies shall we?  Impersonating a Spectre, breaking into a secure Alliance base, stealing a shuttle, and disrupting hostage negotiations.” 

 

Garrus painfully gripped her arm, his voice laced with frustrated rage.  “Negotiations that are going to fail if we don’t do something.  If Grace dies how are you going to live with yourself if you didn’t do everything possible?  Now I’m going and you are _not_ going to stop me.”

 

He shoved her away and went back to putting his armor and weapons together. 

 

“Fuck it.”  Charlie muttered under her breath.  She placed the vid call to Spectre Kryik, but kept her end of the conversation for her eyes and ears only.

 

“Kryik.”  Nihlus’ voice said on the other end, but he didn’t enable the video portion.

 

“It’s Nacht, I need a favor.”

 

Nihlus’ face appeared on the interior of her visor.  Smug would be the best word to describe his face.  “Well hello, Nacht.  What can this _Spectre_ do for you?”

 

Charlie attempted to hide the scowl and failed.  “What have you heard about Grissom Academy?”

 

There was a pause as Nihlus tapped at something off screen.  His face furrowed at what he saw there.  He looked back at Charlie the former smugness replaced by grim lines.  “Nacht, I’m nowhere near you.  I won’t be able to be there for a day, at least.  I’m sure you know that is too late.  The turian group appears to be a sub-group of Facinus.  Honestly, it doesn’t look good from what I’m seeing.  They aren’t known for letting people live and it’s nothing short of amazing that they haven’t killed everyone yet.”

 

Charlie closed her eyes and took a breath.  “I know you can’t get here and I’m not asking you to.  Nihlus … give me your Spectre authorization codes, please.  I know what I’m asking, but who’s to say that I didn’t copy these from you at an earlier date.  You know I won’t point any fingers at you.”

 

Nihlus didn’t say anything for a long while.  “I can’t protect you when this thing inevitably goes south.”

 

“I’m not asking you to.”

 

The Spectre stroked the side of his face.  “What would you do if I said no?”

 

“I’d find another way.  God help me if I know what that is right now, but I’m getting up there and I’m getting Grace out.”

 

“Does this mean that you’ve reconsidered the power that Spectres yield?”

 

Charlie snorted and shook her head.  “Absolutely not, it’s far too much power with far too little oversight.  But right now it’s … useful.”

 

“Fine, I’m sending you my codes.  I’ll come see you in prison, in case you get lonely.”

 

“Make sure you smuggle in my smokes.”  She smiled at him.

 

“Naturally, by the way you’re insane.”

 

She shrugged.  “I’ve been called worse.  And thank you, Nihlus.  I’ll do what I can to make sure this doesn’t come back on you.”

 

The Spectre gave a curt nod and closed the line, but not before a small data packet was transferred.

 

Charlie turned back to Garrus who had already donned his bulky armor.  The crowd of concerned parent was watching the two of them intently.  It occurred to Charlie that she should probably be a little worried about what they will say to the Alliance after she and Garrus are caught.  Because the mission will only end in one of two ways; either they successfully make it up to the station or they get caught groundside.  Either way, the long arm of lady justice would not let them go and they were probably looking at jail time.  Of course there was always the possibility that they could be killed on the station.  Charlie decided that she really didn’t want to think that far ahead and ignored the witnesses to their crime.

 

“I got the codes and we’re good to go.” Charlie informed Garrus as she wiggled into her armor.

 

Years of practice meant that she was dressed very quickly and a few minutes later she was attaching her equipment on to her person.

 

“You’re bringing Ada?”  Garrus asked Charlie as she attached the computer to her belt.

 

“Of course, she might be useful and I’d like to have the full version with me.”  She replied.  Over the years, her originally small VI program had … grown.  It was still a VI, Charlie had made sure of that even though she had named it “Lady Ada Lovelace”.   Charlie was a little offended that so few people understood the reference to the mathematician.  She could forgive the aliens their ignorance, but it was appalling how few humans recognized the name of the first computer programmer.  Ada was an impressive piece of programming and Charlie could not take the full credit for her.  Cecilia Modius had definitely helped in the beginning and Charlie had also bastardized a few market and one off-market VI programs to supplement the growing Ada.  However, Ada had become far too large to be contained solely in her omni-tool and glasses, so Charlie had to bring a small drive with her as well.  She relied heavily on the VI and leaving Ada behind on such an important mission seemed foolish. 

 

Garrus shrugged at Charlie’s response, as he did not trust how attached she was to VI. 

 

Charlie finished buttoning her shirt over her armor and asked, “Have you considered how we’re getting out of this room?”

 

“Actually, I can help with that.”  A small and very pregnant woman emerged from the group.

 

* * *

 

 

Grace Wallis was sitting in the dorm room she shared with Kastanie.  Micah, Sebastian, and Kastanie were in the room, as well.  The boys were practically fawning over her roommate and this greatly amused Grace.  Well it would have amused her more if she wasn’t desperately trying to study.  She appreciated Garrus getting her into the higher level physics and biology courses, but they were thoroughly kicking her butt.  The soft music coming from the keyboard mingled with the boys words of encouragement were extremely distracting.  Kast had taken piano lessons and was thrilled when Grace was assigned as her roommate, because she had the keyboard Char had given her.  Grace had yet to learn how to play, but she could barely pry Kast off it long enough to go to class.

 

“If you guys don’t calm down, I’m going to lock all of you out.”  Grace told the noisy group.

 

Sebastian turned around to look at her.  “Grace, you’re in your head again.  We’re being super quiet.”

 

Grace considered this possibility.  She had been extremely sensitive to emotions since the implant had been removed.  The first few months had been almost deafening to her.  Grace focused on what she was hearing and found that there was no way the boys were actually voicing the dirty thoughts.  Shuddering at the images that were flooding through her mind, she tried to shut them down again and return them to the dull whispering in the back of her head. 

 

“Fine, but you all have disgusting minds and you should be ashamed of yourselves.”  Grace turned back to her book.

 

Kast laughed uproariously and the boys blushed a deep red while avoiding eye contact.  The moment was soured by an intense wailing of the station’s emergency siren. 

 

“Another drill?  This is getting to be ridiculous.”  Micah groaned.

 

Grace left the desk and poked her head outside the door.  Technically when the sirens rang you were supposed to make your way to the emergency station on every floor, but they were alone in the dorms today.  Everyone else was at the biotiball game; Grace had convinced Kast to stay in with her and the boys tagged along, like they always did.  A wave of some emotion hit Grace and she couldn’t quite place it.  It was so familiar too.

 

“Come on, Grace.  Let’s get this over with.  I can’t believe they’re running a drill during the game, man they’re going to pissed.”  Micah laughed at the misfortune of the players.

 

Grace ignored him and refused to move from the doorway.  Something was wrong.  It suddenly hit her where she had felt that emotion.  “Everyone get back!”  Grace pushed the others firmly into the room and shut the door. 

 

“What’s going on?”  Kast grabbed her arm.

 

Grace shook her head, trying to rid it of the distasteful feeling.  “I don’t know, but there are a lot of turians on the floor.  They feel … hateful.  I don’t know what that means, but I don’t trust it.”

 

Sebastian and Kast started to glow with the blue biotic energy as they lifted shields around themselves.  Grace was struck by being temporarily jealous of their ability.  Kast was a solid biotic, but Sebastian was downright gifted.  Grace didn’t exactly struggle herself, but everything she did took time.  She had to make calculations and expend the energy wisely.  Every other biotic could simply make a gesture and will the power into existence.  She did seem to have more reserves than the rest.  Grace hadn’t actually hit a limit of power or a tiring point, though this wouldn’t mean much in a fight. 

 

“Oh god, what’s happening to me?”  Kast’s glow of blue light started to flicker and the girl fell to her knees.  Micah rushed to catch her. 

 

Sebastian groaned and clutched his head.  “Don’t use your biotics.  It feels like they’re tearing me apart.”

 

He sat down heavily on the bed.  Grace snapped her head to the left.  “I can hear them.  They are searching the rooms.  I think they are looking for students.”

 

Micah looked up from where he was holding Kast on the ground.  “How are you doing, Grace?  These two aren’t going to be much good.  We need to get out of here.  Ideas?”

 

Grace flexed her joints; it was odd, but she felt fine.  “I think I’m okay.  Get her away from the door.”

 

Micah half-dragged Kast across the room and behind Grace.  He was the only non-biotic in the room and she was grateful for the help.  She wasn’t sure she could do this alone.  Grace turned her full attention to the door.  She focused on the seam and tried to build heat.  Grace had gotten much better at this exercise over time.  It still took a few moments to build up enough energy to start to weld the door shut, but it was much faster than when she had first used the ability.

 

By the time the door was tightly sealed, they could all hear the men searching through the adjoining rooms.  Sebastian and Kast had emptied their stomachs on the floor and they both looked extremely ill.  Grace could feel the panic building inside of her and she had to shut her eyes to keep it from flowing out of her.

 

“We need to get out of here, but I don’t know what to do.”  Grace attempted to make her voice sound strong and steady, but it came out as a barely audible whisper.

 

Micah stood up and surveyed the situation.  He was already quite tall and at the moment Grace could see the Alliance Officer of his father shining through him.  “Alright, can you cut a hole through the wall?”

 

Grace looked around at the four walls of the small room.  “Which one?”

 

Micah pointed towards the back wall and moved her desk away from it.  He pointed out a small area to cut through.  “Try and make it just big enough for us to get through.  I think there is a storage room on the other side of the dorms.  We should be able to make it into the maintenance tunnels from there.”

 

Grace wrestled with the panicked thoughts and pushed them down long enough to weaken the spot in the wall.  It didn’t take much effort for Micah to kick a hole in the metal after that.  Thankfully, Kast and Sebastian were mobile, though they were still very ill and needed assistance to walk in a straight line.  There was indeed a large room on the other side of the wall, it was dark and full of boxes and neatly stacked furniture.  Micah quickly led the group to a maintenance shaft and they carefully made their way down to a small landing. 

 

Once they were fairly safe and the turian thoughts were nowhere near them, Grace felt her control over her mind slip.  Panic took her.  This wasn’t the first time Grace had been in danger, this wasn’t even the second time, but this was the only time that Char hadn’t been right next to her.  Back on Mindoir, Grace could remember feeling scared when the strange men had attacked her home.  She could clearly remember the distraught sadness that had taken her when her mother died, but she had Char.  Char wasn’t fearless or calm, but she radiated protectiveness.  Grace knew that Char wouldn’t let anything happen to her.  It was same when they had been kidnapped by the insane Bill on the Citadel.  Char and Garrus had both been there and Grace had allowed herself to get caught up in their strength and let it keep the panic and fear from taking her.

 

This time she was alone.  She wasn’t alone, but it was worse than that.  Grace was surrounded by people who were panicking and scared.  It felt like the walls were amplifying their emotions back at her and threatening to drown her.  So, she crouched on the floor and cried.

 

“Grace, I need you.  I can’t do this alone.”  Micah sat down next to her and rested a warm hand on her back.

 

“I can’t help you.  I just … I can’t.”  Grace whispered the words into her knees where her face was buried.

 

“Yes, you can.  You’re the only one here, besides me, who isn’t sick and we need to work together.  Try and focus on me.  I’m pretty calm right now.”

 

Grace turned her head slightly to get a look at Micah.  “You’re not calm.  You’re scared at this whole situation and you’re mad at your dad for not training you.”

 

She was right.  Micah’s father was in the Alliance, but he didn’t want his son to follow in his dangerous footsteps.  So when the boy had shown an aptitude for engineering he had sent him to Grissom for technical training.  However Micah was determined to join the Alliance and had told his friends of his plans to enlist when he reached eighteen.

 

“That’s not quite true.  Here take my hand.”  Micah held his palm out to her.

 

“Are you sure?”  Grace asked him warily.

 

“Yeah, here take it.”

 

Grace hesitantly reached and accepted the skin contact.  She let the blue glow spread from her and looked questioningly at Micah before she began.  He nodded his head with a smile.  The loud rushing noise filled her ears as she made contact with his thoughts.  Most human’s minds were the same, a hundred voices talking at varying levels all at the same time.  Micah’s was no different and Grace patiently listened to his mind.  Some of the voices were contradictory, but it was clear that although he was scared, even frightened, there was a resonating core of determination that ran through him.  As Grace had thought, he mostly definitely was not calm, but he was grounded in determination to stay alive and to keep the others alive.  It wasn’t all that different from how Char felt. 

 

Micah’s mind was very disorganized though and it always bothered Grace when she would connect with someone to find them in disarray.  It was equivalent to seeing your friend’s bedroom for the first time and finding it a pigsty.  Grace always wanted to clean it up for them, but she never tampered with another’s mind, she only observed.  She wasn’t positive that she even could, but she also never tried.

 

Grace took her hand back from Micah and gave him a small smile.  “Thank you for that.  I do feel better now.  Where should we go?”

 

Micah looked at the two sick teenagers leaning against the wall.  “We need to get to the clinic.”

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie let out a nervous laugh after they were out of sight of the Alliance soldier.  “I can’t believe that worked.”

 

Garrus laughed as he set the pregnant woman down in a chair.  “If there is one thing that every male has in common, regardless of their species; it’s not knowing how to handle a screaming woman.  Especially a _pregnant_ screaming woman.”

 

The pregnant woman, Martha Lang, chuckled as she rested her hands on her round stomach.  “It’s so true.  You should have seen my husband during our first.  Now you two go get our other babies back.  I’ll stay here for an hour or so and wait till I know the shuttle is gone, before I return to the room.”

 

 Garrus and Charlie exchanged goodbyes with the expectant Martha and set off down the hall to the exit to the terminal.  After they made their way through the door, Charlie stopped at an automated ticket booth and waved Garrus down to have him stop as well.

 

“What are you doing?”  He asked impatiently.

 

Charlie shrugged noncommittally and said. “Covering our tracks.”

 

Garrus seemed to accept this and was silent for a few minutes before dryly asking, “So, I couldn’t help but notice that you knew that Kryik was on Illium.  I just find it interesting that someone who claims to have no interest in a person knows their location.”

 

Charlie didn’t look up from her omni-tool.  “I know the location of a lot of people.  I know that Chellick is at Jenna’s apartment right now.  I know that Pallin is in his office, probably yelling at some poor fool.  And I know that you are right here, asking to get your ass kicked.”

 

Garrus ignored the old threat.  “I just find it interesting.  I mean weren’t you telling me that it was a casual thing and you hadn’t seen him since that night?”

 

Charlie let out a warning growl.

 

“Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds coming from a human?  Oh I get it, that’s how you won Kryik over, wasn’t it?”

 

Charlie continued to work on her tool, but sounded exasperated.  “Damn it, Garrus.  Is now really the time to be harassing me?”

 

“Now is the perfect time.  Your hands are all preoccupied.”

 

“Fine, I’ve seen him a few more times.  It’s still a casual thing though.  I still don’t particularly like him or his job and I tell him so every chance I get.”

 

Garrus tapped his chin and looked like a parody of thoughtful.  “That conversation you had with him was awfully fast to get a Spectre’s help.  I mean you asked him for a terribly huge favor and he almost immediately agreed to it.  Either you have some fantastic and mind-blowing moves or it’s not as casual as you keep claiming.”

 

Charlie finished what she was doing and shut off the orange glowing tool.  In the same moment, she turned to Garrus hit him solidly at the waist.  She was careful not to do any real damage.  “Trust me when I say that it’s because I’m fantastic and mind-blowing.”  Charlie growled the words without any real venom, and then turned around and marched to the terminal exit.  Garrus fell in behind her chuckling. 

 

The small Alliance base shared the landing zone with the terminal, so it was not long before the duo had made their way to entrance. 

 

“Put your helmet on.”  She muttered to Garrus as they walked the guard post.

 

“Why?”

 

Charlie turned and gave him a stern look.  “You’re Spectre Nihlus Kryik and you’re keeping your damn helmet on.”

 

Garrus put the helmet on, but said.  “I thought we could just get past security with the codes.”

 

“We probably could, but I would rather go in the front door so anyone looking at the vid feeds will know who we are.  The simplest plan is the best plan and you pretending to be Kryik is the simplest part of this whole farkakte venture.  By the way, under no circumstance are you to open your mouth.  Anyone who tries to run a voice print will immediately know what’s going on.”

 

“Good thing, no one here has probably ever met Kryik.  I’m a little taller than him.”

 

Charlie added.  “You also have a less broad chest, yet somehow his waist is narrower than yours.”

 

Charlie laughed when Garrus gaped at her and stuttered while trying to remember how his tongue worked.  It was far too easy and satisfying to work him up.

 

“So who are you going to be?”  Garrus asked.

 

“C-Sec Detective Charlotte Nacht, obviously.  Like I said, we’re going with the simplest plan.  Alright your tool is convinced you are Kryik.  Let’s do this and try not to get caught.”

 

Charlie had a whole story planned out in her head as they approached the booth with the guard.  Thus she was almost disappointed when the man barely acknowledged their presence.  They simply walked up to the booth, Garrus waved his codes into the console, and then they stepped into the building.  It was seamless and incredibly anti-climatic. 

 

Garrus offering Charlie a shrug and she whispered, “We need to get to our hands on some stealth emitters and a couple of bio-maskers.”  Charlie looked at the map of the base laid out behind her glasses.  “Down this hall.”

 

Charlie used Ada to keep their route as personnel-free as possible.  This meant that it took longer to reach their destination, but it felt safer this way.  Nobody stopped them, but they were given some strange looks as they passed.  Of course they made an odd pair, to a bystander.  A 7’6’’ turian, armed and in full armor, accompanied by a 6’1’’ human female, who was also armed.  It also didn’t help that Charlie had slipped into her cop-mode.  Her body language and purposeful stride sent a few younger privates scurrying out of her path.  Of course, the same presence drew the attention of the older officers.

 

She stopped in front of a door and motioned Garrus to head inside without her.  Charlie needed to keep an eye on the hall and he was more than capable of picking up the equipment.  Garrus had just disappeared when she heard elevated voices coming from the room opposite her.

 

“This is a mistake, Captain.  I’m telling you that you’re going to get people killed.  Let me take a team up to Grissom and I promise that we’ll put a stop to this.”  The deep male voice was passionate and Charlie silently agreed with him.

 

“David, this isn’t your command.  I’m playing this by the book and that is …”

 

“Damn it!  They aren’t human, Yelchik.”

 

The voices were too muffled to understand after that and even her glasses couldn’t completely make out the conversation.  A few minutes later, the door slid open and a tall, dark-skinned, uniformed man stepped out.  Charlie was stuck between looking at him and acting casual.  When he didn’t move from his position she chanced a look at him.  His uniform claimed him as a captain and that concerned her.  His heavily scarred face appeared to be drawn in a permanent scowl as he stared at Charlie.

 

“Detective Nacht.”  The captain’s voice was a deep rumble and almost seemed familiar to her.

 

“Captain.”  Charlie replied with a nod.

 

The captain looked at Charlie suspiciously and was about to say something when Garrus stepped through the door behind her.  Charlie silently cursed the timing.

 

The man looked between the turian and the woman, and then asked.  “What’s going on here?”

 

“This is Spectre Nihlus Kryik.”  Charlie prayed that he wouldn’t call her on the lie.

 

The captain looked skeptically at Garrus and leaned in close to them.  “I know Kryik and I know that’s not him.  What the hell are you two doing?”

 

Charlie knew she was made and gave it her last effort.  She leaned in close to his face and growled.  “I’m saving Grace.  I know that you don’t agree with the Alliance’s handling of the terrorists.  We’re going up there and we’re bringing back the kids.  You can stop us, but you’d be stopping their best chance of survival.”

 

‘’Breaking into an Alliance base is not the way to save them and I’m surprised that you, Nacht, don’t know better.  Come with me.”  The captain sternly motioned them down the hall and away from their eventual goal.  When Charlie moved to pass him, she caught a glimpse of his name printed on his chest.

 

“Anderson?  David Anderson?”  Charlie asked.  She quickly wracked her brain for any information she might have that would be useful.  The problem was that the game hadn’t told her a lot about his personal life before the Mass Effect events and it had been over nine years since she had played them.

 

“Yes?” 

 

Charlie landed on the only thing she could remember and hoped that it was correct.  “You have someone up there too, sir.  Let us go and I promise that we’ll do everything we can to save her.”

 

Anderson stiffened.  “What are you talking about?”

 

“Dr. Kahlee Sanders.”  Charlie said and then held her breath praying she was right.

 

The stern look on his face broke as he drew his eyebrows together and looked away from Charlie.  “Regardless, I can’t let you and who I assume is the turian detective you’re always with go up to Grissom without backup.  It’s reckless and if the terrorists find you in that shuttle, then they’re going to take it out on the civilians on the station.”

 

“Unless you can convince the captain,” Charlie jerked a thumb at the closed door.  “They’re dead already.  Give us a chance to try and save them.”

 

Anderson seemed to think this over for a second, before motioning to the pair’s weapons.  “You can’t take those with you.  They’ll run a weapons scan before they open the shuttle.  I’m going to assume that you already thought of stealth fields and bio-sign maskers.”

 

Charlie mentally kicked herself for forgetting about the weapons.  She gave Anderson a nod in thanks, as she didn’t trust her voice, and quickly fled down the hall towards the shuttle bay.

 

* * *

 

 

Grace grunted as she lifted Kast up to Micah.  She was not very strong or tall, at only 4’11’’ and 90 lbs, and couldn’t even be classified as wiry.  Grace was barely more than a little girl in stature and she was lamenting never going to the gym with Char, not that the woman had ever actually offered.  It didn’t help that Kastanie was easily five inches taller than Grace and had definitely filled out her curves. 

 

It had taken forty minutes to get to their current location, which was as close to the medical bay as the maintenance tunnels would allow them to get.  It would have been a much faster journey, but Kast and Sebastian had completely passed out fifteen minutes after they started to travel and Grace and Micah had been stuck carrying them. 

 

“Alright Grace, do you feel anyone out there?”  Micah asked her after she had climbed up the ladder. 

 

Grace closed her eyes and opened mind as wide as she could.  The sensation was always an unpleasant one as it exposed her to far too many differing emotions. 

 

“There are definitely others on this level.  I’m not sure if they are humans or turians, there are too many to pinpoint.  There isn’t anyone in the room that the hatch opens into though.”

 

Micah nodded his understanding and quietly opened the maintenance hatch.  Grace saw the young man peer into the room and then take a cautious step into the blackness.  The air caught in her lungs when he tripped over something and she could feel his rising panic.  Grace built up biotic energy and let her hand glow blue so they could see in the darkened storage room.  She waved her hand around to the shelves and realized that they must be in the pharmacy, as the shelves were full of medi-gel and pill bottles. 

 

It was frustrating to be in the correct place to help the others, but not have the required medical knowledge.

 

Micah leaned down to her ear and whispered, “We need a doctor.”

 

Grace nodded her head and together they walked to the pharmacy door.  She held up her hand to stop Micah from walking through the entrance, when she heard the voices.

 

“Remotely turn off her implant then.”  A harsh turian voice grated.

 

“She doesn’t have one.”  A quiet feminine voice responded after a moment.

 

“Well then you better think of something else or I’m killing another one.”

 

“I’m not saying anything else; you’re just going to kill everyone anyways.”  Grace heard the defiance echoing through both the woman’s tones and emotion. 

 

Grace looked up into Micah’s eyes that were reflecting the blue glow.  They were full of hatred and rage at the turian.  She knew he was going to open the door before he even moved, yet she still couldn’t stop him.

 

The open door revealed a large and heavily scarred turian male leaning over a prone human female.  At the sound of the swishing door, the turian turned to the pair of teenagers and cocked his head quizzically at them.  It would have almost been funny, but he followed the motion with pulling an assault rifle and leveling it at them.  Micah blindly charged the turian, who easily lifted the boy off the ground, shoved the end of the rifle in his gut, and sneered.  Grace was going to set him on fire, but that took too long.  Instead she crossed the room and rested one hand on the turians forearm.

 

The turian immediately went still and Micah was able to pull himself out of his grasp.  Grace was only dimly aware of this though.  When she touched the turian’s mind she did something she had never done before.  Grace had thought that this might be possible for her, but she had always stayed behind her old rule of “look, but don’t touch” when looking into another’s thoughts.  When she had touched the turian, she set up a mental shroud inside his mind.  She couldn’t control his thoughts; she could only prevent him from acting on them.  However, this left her painfully exposed to his screaming mind.  Hundreds of ideas flitted up to the surface of his mind like a pot of boiling water.  Most of them were hateful thoughts about hurting the woman or Grace or Micah or any human at all, but some of them were benign.  Such as, talking to a colleague or readjusting the scope on his gun or what he was going to eat for lunch.  The sheer amount of conflicting emotion threatened to drown Grace, but she kept a firm grip on his mind and maintained the shroud around him. 

 

Grace was vaguely made aware of a tapping on her shoulder and a voice speaking in her ear.  She forced herself to pay attention to her surroundings.

 

“You can’t kill him.  The others will notice.  Can you make him leave?”  A woman’s voice spoke to her.

 

“Can you make him leave the gun too?”  A young man’s voice said.

 

Grace was dimly aware of nodding her head, before she plunged back into his mind.  She sifted through his thoughts until she found the right ones.  Grace wasn’t sure if she could prevent some thoughts from existing and she wasn’t even sure if she should try to do that.  It felt incredibly wrong to have such control over someone, but she could bury worst of the thoughts and drag the appropriate ones to the surface.  She somehow knew that she was not able to create thoughts in his mind; she could only manipulate original ones. 

 

Her task complete, she carefully withdrew herself from his mind and took the shroud with her.  The turian started moving the moment she removed her hand from his arm.  He walked over to the counter, placed the rifle on it, and then just left the room.  Grace sat down on the floor with a sigh of both relief and disgust.  She felt dirty, like her mind had touched something unclean.

 

“That was awesome.”  Micah said in an awed voice.  He then reached down to help Grace off the floor.

 

The second his hand touched her arm, Grace turned to him and spat.  “Get your hands off of me, you piece of pyjak shit.”

 

Micah jerked his arm back like she had burned him and Grace glared at him, hatred of humans filling her.  The look of concern and confusion on his face slowly brought her out of the venomous thoughts.

 

“I’m … I’m sorry, Micah.  I don’t know what that was.”

 

“Kids, we need to leave now.  I don’t know how long that trick is going to work on him.”  The badly beaten woman pulled herself off of the floor and Grace recognized her as Dr. Sanders.

 

Grace nodded her head in agreement.  She had brought up the recollection that the turian needed to use the bathroom and she was really unsure what would happen to his mind after he was finished with the task.  She put no voice to these thoughts though, as she didn’t particularly trust her voice after what she had said to Micah.

 

“Dr. Sanders, Kastanie and Sebastian got really sick and they are passed out in the maintenance shaft.  Can you help them?”  Micah asked the injured woman as he helped her up. 

 

Sanders pushed her blonde bangs away from her face and asked, “It started with a failing of biotic abilities, shifted to violent illness, and right now they are passed out?”

 

Grace nodded her head.

 

“The same thing happened to all of the biotic students and staff.  I don’t know what it is.  I’m sorry, but we need to go.”  The quiet command in the adult’s voice spurred the teenagers into moving.  Grace awkwardly took the rifle that the turian had left.  It was far too large for her and it felt odd in her hands, like she wasn’t even sure if she was holding it properly.  So she held it away from her body and was careful to keep her hands well away from the trigger and the barrel was never pointed in anyone’s direction. 

 

Grace disappeared inside of her own mind.  This was a common exercise for her.  Her body could continue the motions of conscious thought, but in reality her mind was elsewhere.  What had she done to that turian?  No, that was a lie.  She knew exactly what she had done.  What was truly frightening about the action was how easy it had been.  How she had known exactly what to do.  All of the years of telling herself that she would only observe and never interact had been for nothing, because now she had crossed that threshold and now her abilities were evident.  Could she even go back to just observing?  Maybe, but she didn’t want to.  The thing that made Grace truly feel like a monster was that she was wondering what else she could do.  Creation of thoughts was probably outside of her ability.  However, she had a feeling that the extermination of thoughts was not.  What would happen if she chased down every conscious part of a person and simply deleted it?  It would take a while, that she was sure of.  What she had done to the turian had taken a while too, but Grace couldn’t help the ever so slight feeling of elation of the power that she wielded.  She was unique and she was powerful. 

 

Grace shuddered at the thought, but didn’t bury it too deeply in her subconscious.  She wondered briefly what Char would say about her using the ability.  The thought brought a small smile to her face.  Char wouldn’t have a problem with it at all; in fact, Char would probably have given her a hug and praised her for her quick thinking.  Char would probably have been more concerned about Grace and not even have given a single thought to the turian.  Then again the woman did have very elaborate notions of personal security and perhaps tampering with another’s mind would fall into that realm.  Grace gave a mental cry of frustration that Char was not here.

 

* * *

 

 

“I thought that you knew how to use a stealth generator.”  Charlie whispered furiously to Garrus.  They had safely boarded the shuttle and were currently standing at the back of the vehicle. 

 

Garrus sighed in frustration.  “No … well not really.  I don’t know.  I thought you did.  You were the one who suggested them.  Can Ada figure them out?”

 

Charlie snatched the device from his hands and muttered under her breath as she linked with the software.  After a few minutes, she looked back up to him.  “I can get them activated, but they require full integration into our armor to mask our movements.  As neither of us is prepared for that, we’ll have to stay perfectly still or risk breaking the field.”

 

“I can’t believe that you don’t already have a stealth generator in your suit.  It would work so well with your style.”

 

Charlie placed one hand on her hip and motioned with the other one to her armor skin suit.  “I already have a shield generator, a tech shield generator, and Ada.  All of that drains power, so I’ve upgraded my battery cells and currently have twice of the normal amount.  I briefly looked into getting a stealth generator and came up with two good reasons why that would be a horrible idea.  One is that my batteries can’t handle anymore drain and I’m already a ticking tech bomb if I get hit with an overload.  The second reason is that I am terrible at stealth.  Just because they couldn’t see me does not prevent them from hearing me.  You can hear the whine of the processors I carry around at twenty feet as it is.  No, I’d much rather stick with my normal style.”

 

“Shotgun to the face?”  Garrus asked with a smirk.

 

“Exactly, this reminds me that we don’t have any weapons.”

 

Garrus sighed and scratched the back of his neck.  “I know.  By the way, we can’t attack any of the terrorists in the shuttle bay either.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because if they think that the Alliance double crossed them and sent up an extraction team, then they’re going to start killing students and now that they have access to the extranet they’re going to broadcast it.  So, we’re going to have to leave the shuttle somehow and get far away from the bay before we launch into the rescue.”

 

Charlie steadied herself as the shuttle broke the atmosphere.  “Oh is that all?”  Her tone was soaked in sarcasm.

 

Garrus didn’t verbally respond to her jab and the rest of the short shuttle trip was spent in anxiety fueled silence.  The shuttle shook as it was hooked in place by the docking clamps.  Garrus and Charlie gave each other worried looks as they pressed themselves flat against the bulkhead and activated the stealth generators.  This could go pear-shaped very quickly and Garrus let himself sink into the familiar rhythm of his military training.  The ability to calm his mind even under extreme duress is makes Garrus Vakarian a truly remarkable sniper.  He was concerned about Charlie though, patience was a gift as well as a virtue and it was not one that she possessed.  However, she was the embodiment of single minded determination and Garrus silently asked the spirits that Charlie chose to display that today.

 

 The hatch noisily grinded open and two turian males entered the shuttle.  Garrus was immediately struck by their turian military discipline.  The manner in which they moved wasted no motion and the shuttle was quickly scanned and searched.  Thankfully, they were not discovered, but one of the males positioned himself directly in front of Charlie with his back to her.  Garrus knew what face she was making and silently willed her not to attack the easy target.  Just in case she did it anyways, Garrus formed a plan for his counterattack and braced himself to launch at the second male. 

 

Miraculously Charlie did not attack the male and the two turians made short work of removing the Alliance’s equipment from the shuttle.  Once they had left and once again closed the hatch, Garrus saw the flicker of a stealth net beside him and then Charlie was walking towards the hatch. 

 

“What do you see?”  He asked her.

 

Charlie moved her head around the interior of the shuttle and let out a small gasp.  She immediately brought up her omni-tool and started tapping at the screen.  

 

“What is it?”  Garrus asked again.

 

“They’re going to space the shuttle.”  She said in rush.

 

“Fuck, what do we do?”

 

“You can shut up, while I try and stall them.”  Charlie muttered absently as her fingers ghosted across the orange screen.

 

With a sharp flick of her wrist the glow turned off and the woman sank to the floor and started to pry open the metal. 

 

“What are you doing?”  Garrus was getting increasingly frustrated at feeling left out of the loop.

 

“Opening the secondary hatch.”  Charlie grunted and Garrus sank down next to her and assisted in the endeavor.  “Alliance shuttlecrafts always have a small hatch located at the bottom.  They’re only for maintenance work and they are supposed to open above a small alcove for repairs.”  The hatch clicked open and Garrus could see a darkened space underneath the shuttle, it was illuminated in a dim red light. 

 

“Oh good, they brought the shuttle in according to standard loading procedures.”  Charlie dropped into the small opening and called up to Garrus.  “Hey it’s like the beginning of a terrible horror movie.  Too bad neither of us are virgins, we might have had a chance of making it out.”

 

Garrus grunted as he forced his large body through the small opening.  It had definitely been made with a human physique in mind.  When he finally fell to the floor next to Charlie he understood what she meant by the odd comment.  The small room was poorly lit and the red light was flickering ominously.  Charlie tapped in a few commands to her tool and the ceiling began to close as the shuttle was lifted away.  After the ceiling slid shut the red light went completely out and Garrus reminded himself that he was a rational turian.

 

“Are you alright with the lights off?  I have the glasses, but your visor only covers one of your eyes.”

 

Garrus peered at Charlie through his visor and replied.  “It’s definitely not an ideal situation, but it’s better than the alternative.  So we’ll keep the lights off.”

 

Charlie gave a quick nod and set off down the short hall to the set of stairs.  “This leads back up to the shuttle bay and we’re going to have to head up there.  However, there is an elevator less than ten feet from the exit.”

 

The armored woman stopped at the exit and held a fist up to signal Garrus to wait.  After a minute she pointed out the locations of the three guards that remained on the level.  Charlie gave him an anxious look to reveal her frustration at being confined to the small space and Garrus thought he could almost read the ludicrous plan forming behind her large, orange illuminated eyes.

 

Garrus place his large three-taloned hand on her shoulder and shook his head, preventing Charlie from completing whatever scheme she was dreaming.  She scowled at him and Garrus bit back the chuckle.

 

Garrus’ sensitive ears could hear the footsteps overhead and he looked at Charlie for confirmation.  She nodded and silently signaled him that two of the men had taken the elevator.  The third man was still in the observation booth on the upper level.  Charlie cautiously opened the floor level hatch above them and held a hand up to Garrus as she peered over the edge.  After she gave him the sharp arm gesture to move, Garrus sprinted for the elevator with Charlie on his heels. 

 

“Where to?”  She asked once they were safely in the elevator.

 

“First things first, we need to be armed and we need to know what the situation is on the station.  We aren’t rescuing anyone if we don’t know where they are.”

 

“Right, security station it is.”  Charlie tapped the console in the elevator.  The gentle hum of the motor and the bright cheery lights of the interior seemed to mock the seriousness of their situation.  A soft chime sounded and the doors slid open.  Garrus and Charlie were tucked against the walls of the elevator and Charlie appeared to stare at the metal wall as her omni-glasses gave her a readout of the vicinity.  Charlie signaled an all-clear and the two of them darted out of the elevator and found cover. 

 

The area that the elevator had opened to was a long hall with large decorative plants lining the walls.  It was definitely not an ideal place for a firefight, in Garrus’ opinion, as there was a considerable lack of places for adequate cover.  So they found themselves running from wall to wall, with Charlie stopping every other minute to check the surroundings.  It was tedious and Garrus felt positively naked without any weapons.  He briefly wondered if the Alliance would actually return his perfectly calibrated Punisher after this was all over.  Of course that was assuming that they made it out and that they didn’t spend the rest of their lives in prison. 

 

Garrus examined the dark thought and found it pointless to dwell on, so he firmly dismissed it and continued to follow Charlie down the hall.  Even though it had been years since they had worked closely with each other, it was surprisingly easy to slip back into the old patterns.  Charlie’s glasses made her excellent scout and she could handle most anything in a close range.  Garrus was better suited at understanding a field and forming tactics around the information she would feed him.  His sniper rifle typically made him outstanding at long range and the assault rifle helped with close range work.  They still made a good team and Garrus found that he didn’t even need to see the hand signals that she was giving him.  He knew what she was going to say by the tension in her shoulders or the minute emotions that flickered across her face.

 

The hall opened into a large, empty foyer.  There were stairs along the back that lead up to a small room and there were two additional exits that presumably led to other sections of the level.  Garrus immediately did not trust the room.  He couldn’t see anyone, but it seemed too fortuitous for such an easily defensible position to be left unguarded.  Evidently Charlie had no such reservations.  After scanning the area with her glasses, she reported no hostiles and quickly moved into the room. 

 

Garrus followed her, but couldn’t shake the caution building under his plates.  When he ducked beside Charlie he drew his long combat knife from his boot sheath.  His companion eyed the weapon and gave him a questioning look, but shrugged and drew her own blade.  Charlie nodded at a low wall before darting to the piece of cover, Garrus waited till she was almost there to follow her.

 

A feint shimmer behind Charlie was the only warning Garrus had before a turian male grabbed her and set a gun against her head.  It was a foolish mistake on the turian’s part to place the gun directly on Charlie, without first securing her arms.  Because Charlie simply ducked, sent a wicked elbow into his side, and pulled him over her shoulder towards Garrus.  Garrus was already moving and caught the turian before the terrorist had a chance to react properly.  A quick twist of his head and the male was down. 

 

When Garrus looked back to Charlie, she was grappling with another turian.  By the time Garrus had pulled a pistol from his fallen foe, Charlie was driving her combat knife up and under the unguarded portion of his helmet.  Garrus quickly moved to the low wall beside her and scanned the room for more stealthed assailants. 

 

“I _hate_ stealth generators.”  Charlie huffed while checking the sights on her newly acquired assault rifle. 

 

Garrus nodded his agreement and said, “We need to move.  We’re too exposed here and there could easily be more of them.”  He glanced at Charlie’s weapon and held out his pistol.  “Switch.”

 

Charlie complied and Garrus felt much more comfortable with the familiar assault rifle.

 

“I’ll follow you.  Tell me where to go.”  Charlie said.

 

Garrus nodded to the back stairs.  “We go up.  Search the room and hold that position.”

 

Charlie’s response was to pop out from cover and quickly dart closer to the stairs.  Garrus covered her movement and waited until she gave him the signal to follow.  He was almost to her when Charlie’s head snapped to look just left of him and she raised the pistol and sent a short three-round burst beside him.  Garrus did not question her action and instead spun in place and opened fire into the empty space she had attacked.  There was a flicker of a stealth generator powering off and a turian fell heavily to the ground.  Garrus rolled into cover beside Charlie.

 

She simply motioned to her glasses and said.  “Jacked up the sensitivity.  All of that turian weight still sends vibrations into the floor.”

 

Garrus saw the almost manic expression in her eyes that was offset by the hard lines in her face.  Her eyes didn’t seem to stop from darting around the room and he realized that the amount of information being fed to her through her glasses must have been overwhelming.  He gently tapped her shoulder and motioned for her to continue their ascent up the stairs.  After a few moments, Charlie complied and Garrus was a little surprised that she simply darted up the stairs and tucked into a corner beside the entrance into the room.  He gave the ground floor one last sweep with his rifle before following Charlie.

 

The control room appeared empty when they entered it.  Garrus quickly shut the doors and keyed them to his encryption.  That wouldn’t completely prevent someone from entering, but it would give him time to prepare. 

 

“What’s the plan?”  Charlie asked him.

 

Garrus looked around at the small room and found a cabinet full of weapon mods.  He sifted through the small devices until he found a couple of high powered laser scopes.  Charlie caught the scope that he tossed to her and dumbly looked at it.

 

“Stealth nets can’t replicate focused lasers.”  Garrus explained while he attached the sniper scope to his assault rifle.  “We might not be able to pick up the discrepancy, but our visors definitely can.”

 

Charlie held up the pistol and the large scope, as if daring him to make them fit together. 

 

Garrus almost chuckled at the absurdity of a pistol with an 8 inch rifle scope attached to it.  “Hand me that.”  He began dissecting the scope.  “We don’t actually need the scope, we only need the laser.  I cannot believe that you can’t do this yourself.  You can write beautiful programs and break into almost any security system, but you can’t remove a laser from a simple scope?”

 

Charlie huffed at him.  “I don’t like hardware.  There are too many wires and circuits and … I just hate it.  Programming is language and mathematics.  I can do that, it’s like breathing to me.”

 

“There aren’t _any_ wires or circuits … never mind.  Give me your arm.”  Garrus took the proffered right arm and began to strap the laser onto it.  “By the way, if you hate hardware so much, how did you ever build those glasses?”

 

“Bribed a salarian.”  Charlie said with a shrug.

 

“What the hell?  What does that mean?”  Garrus looked at Charlie like he had never seen her before.  Charlie never bribed people.  Threatened?  Yes.  Bribed?  No.

 

Charlie sighed and shook her finger at Garrus.  “I’m telling you this in confidence.  So there was … this salarian, I’m not naming names.  Anyways, he was trying to sell a VI without a permit.  Apparently he had tried to acquire one, but there was an inquiry into whether his VI was actually an AI.  I saw the program and it was definitely a VI.  Anyhow he ignored the illegality of his work and proceeded to sell it.  When I caught him, I gave him the option of leaving the Citadel and selling his wares elsewhere or going to jail.  He chose to leave.”

 

“Where did the bribery come in?”

 

“Oh yeah I may have included a clause that required him to leave a copy of the schematics for his omni-glasses.  I _may_ have also acquired one of his VIs.”

 

Garrus gave Charlie a longsuffering look.  “Is Ada the VI?”

 

Charlie shook her head vigorously and then tried out the new laser attachment on her arm.  “No definitely not, but she may have started out that way.  Miss Lovelace long ago outgrew that programming.  Didn’t you, love?”  Charlie absently stroked the metal fixture at her waist. 

 

“Spirits, you are an odd one.  Let’s go.”

 

It didn’t take them long to clear the ground floor.  As there were not any turians left in the foyer.  After they stripped the three fallen terrorists of weapons and ammo, they returned to the loft and Charlie sat down at the console.  Garrus set about appropriately modding their new weapons and adjusting the sights for the both of them. 

 

“Alright, it looks like they have two groups of students and three groups of staff.”  Charlie called from the console.

 

“Biotic and non-biotic?”  Garrus hazarded the guess.

 

“That would be my first thought, but I can’t tell which is which.  The main difference appears to be that one group is conscious and the other isn’t.  They’re definitely alive though.  I doubt the terrorists would waste so many soldiers to guard dead kids.”

 

Garrus set the rifle down carefully, because his hands had threatened to drop it when Charlie had given him the news.  He walked over behind her and peered the security cameras. 

 

“Are any of the adults unconscious?”  Garrus asked in a low tone. 

 

Charlie tapped on the screen and brought up footage of the adult group.  “Yeah, but only a few of them.”

 

Garrus reached over her and tapped the screen to enlarge a section.  There was a woman laying on a gurney.  “Is that …”

 

“Yeah that’s Grace’s teacher, Professor Tyrelle.”

 

Garrus went quiet and looked from feed to feed. 

 

“What is it, Garrus?  What did they do to the biotics?”  Charlie asked him.

 

Garrus took a deep breath.  “Do you remember the Malindra?”

 

Charlie’s eyes blanked for a second while she pulled up the memory.  “The asari cruise liner?  Yeah you said they were drugged, right?”

 

“Yes, well it wasn’t just the asari that were affected.  Eventually we found out that it was a drug called Omega-Enkaphalin, it retards the biotic nodules.  It leads to coma-like state and then eventually death.  If I remember correctly it takes a few hours to be fatal.”

 

“Who made this?”

 

“Cerberus.”  Garrus responded darkly.  “They sold it to the batarians, who used it in multiple attacks.  As to why they did it … I think you would have to ask them.”

 

Charlie was silent for a while as she contemplated this.  Garrus noticed that although she was quiet her hands were not idle as she tapped on both the console and her omni-tool.  Clearly she was working on some task and Garrus went back to his abandoned work with the weapons.

 

“Why would the batarians kill the biotics?”  Charlie asked suddenly.

 

Garrus didn’t look up from his calibrations, but responded.  “They wouldn’t.  We never found any proof, but it was widely assumed that they possessed a counter agent to the drug.  It’s possible that these terrorists have it, as well.  But …”

 

“But if their plan is to kill everyone anyways, why would they need an antidote?”  Charlie grimly finished for him.

 

Garrus heard the woman mutter something that his translator didn’t pick up.  “What was that?”

 

Charlie leaned her head against the screen.  “I said, if this is a Cerberus made drug, then that implies that they are behind the attack.  I can’t believe that they are behind yet another plot.  I mean, first of all, there’s Mindoir.  Then there was the Malindra.  Then there was Kyrnee.  Now this too?  What do they have to gain from this?  Their ultimate goal was supposed to be the ‘betterment of humanity’.  How the hell does killing a bunch of kids further that?  Especially when those kids are brilliant or biotic powerhouses.”

 

“Why are the turian extremists attacking the school?  None of this is supposed to be logical.”  Garrus responded.  The anxiety building inside of him did not betray the calmness in his tone.

 

“See, I can actually understand the terrorists.  I’m not saying I agree with them, but I get it.  They feel their way of life is being threatened, so they react in the only way they know how.  By attempting to scare the Alliance into quelling their colony programs and ‘showing’ Earth that the galaxy is a terrifying place.  I’m not saying I agree with them, but I get it.  What I don’t get is Cerberus.  They always have a reason, sometimes it doesn’t make sense immediately, but they play the long con.  I just do not get it right now.”

 

“And you know all of this from your many dealings with Cerberus over the years?”  Garrus scoffed at her.

 

“Sure, why not?”  There was an odd quality to Charlie’s voice that made Garrus turn his head and look at her.  It was the same tone that she took when she was dodging a comment about her past.  It wasn’t a lie, but it was definitely a side step of the truth.  Garrus wished that he had more time to delve into the many questions surrounding his former partner, but they needed to move.

 

“Are you ready?  We need to move.”

 

“Almost done.”  Charlie’s hands darted across the screen and her brow was furrowed with concentration.  “Alright I’m done.  We should have remote access to this station from here on out.  I’ve sent Ada to try and gain additional access to the entire station, but it’s probably going to be a while.  She doesn’t work as quickly on her own yet.  She’s not as … creative as I am.  However she has patience for miles.”

 

Garrus snorted at her.  “So she’s the complete opposite of you?”

 

He shook his head at her wild grin and motioned to the table with the weapons laid out.  One of the terrorists had had a decent sniper rifle, so he was pleased, and he had found a shotgun hooked underneath a desk for Charlie.  He watched as she checked the sights and strapped the weapons to her body.  She attached her usual shotgun and pistol to opposite thighs, but his eyeplates rose when he saw her grab an additional pistol for her hip and settle an assault rifle between her shoulders.  Garrus had never seen Charlie with such a heavy loadout.  Typically she was rather minimalist on the weapons and heavy on the tech, but today she was not taking chances.  Garrus completely understood her mentality.

 

“Did you find her?”  Garrus questioned Charlie, knowing full well that she knew who he was referring to.

 

Charlie looked up into his face before responding.  “No.”

 

Garrus nodded his head and pulled his command face firmly in place.  “Alright, well I don’t think we’re going to be much good to the kids all by ourselves.  Our first task will be to find the security team and free them.”

 

Charlie gave a curt nod to her head and Garrus watched her eyes flicker behind the orange glow while her fingers twitched.  “Got ‘em.” She reported.  “Level 3, interior; looks like they’re being kept in the engine room.  Smart.  They can’t risk using weapons in there.”

 

“Well, that’s where we’re heading then.  Good thing the _terrorists_ can’t use their weapons either.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally wrote Ada in a long time ago as Charlie's silent companion. However, I failed to realize how closely the name was to another similar character, EDI. By the time this was pointed out to me, I couldn't change it because I had already fallen in love with her. So ... whoops?


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was asked why Garrus said that he loved Charlie. I feel like I should explain something really quick. Garrus and Charlie are friends. Really, really good friends (who occasionally have bouts of sexual tension), but just friends. Whether or not this changes in the future ... I can't tell you. Personally I have a couple of really good friends who feel comfortable enough to say "I love you" without me thinking it might be romantic. Because there are a lot of different kinds of love. For instance, I love you guys. Especially all of the people who comment or leave kudos or follow. Every new reader makes me giggle like I'm a child and keeps me writing.

“What do you mean you can’t use the rifle?  I’ve seen your mom and she’s scary good.”  Micah whispered his frustration thinly veiled.

 

Grace tried not to huff back at him, but it was difficult.  They had been crawling through the narrow passages for a while now and everyone’s nerves were on edge.  “First of all, she’s not my mom.  Second, she never offered to teach me.”

 

“I just can’t believe that she wouldn’t teach you.  After that bombing on the Citadel, she became a bit of a legend.  Did you know my dad told me not to make friends with you, because of it?”

 

Grace paused in climbing up the ladder and looked up at Micah’s disappearing feet.  Did she know?  Of course she did.  Micah had told her as much the first time he met her.  Char wasn’t so much a “legend” as she was a cautionary tale among humans.  She was what happened when a human spent too much time around aliens, especially turians.  Grace felt a little insulted on behalf of Char, because the woman didn’t really seem to care what her own species thought of her.

 

“It’s a little surprising that _you_ don’t know how to handle a weapon, especially considering that your father is in the military.”  Grace resumed her climb, but Micah had stopped above her and was peering down.  She could feel the offense at her remark seeping from him.  “Sorry.  I shouldn’t have said that.”

 

“No, you’re right.  It’s just frustrating that neither of us can really do much to help.  Well you can do biotic stuff, at least.  I’m pretty much useless.”

 

Grace sighed, reached up and patted his ankle.  “You’re not useless, Micah.  You knew about the tunnels and you kind of saved Dr. Sanders.  I never would have run into the room on my own.”

 

“I appreciate both of you, but right now we need to keep moving.  We’re almost at the research center.”  Dr. Sanders called from under Grace.

 

They had left Kast and Sebastian in the tunnels beneath them, because Dr. Sanders had said there was nothing more she could do for them.  Thankfully there had been monitoring equipment in the pharmacy which they had attached to the two teenagers.  It wouldn’t keep them alive, but it would inform Dr. Sanders if their condition changed.  Grace felt terrible about leaving them alone, but Dr. Sanders had insisted.

 

Currently, they were heading to Dr. Sanders’ office in the research and development center.  They needed to contact the Alliance and the doctor didn’t think that the terrorists knew about the transmitter in her office.  It was kind of a gamble and one that Grace felt extremely nervous about, but it seemed like their best bet. 

 

“Alright kids, you are going to stay behind me.  You are only going to do what I tell you to.”  Dr. Sanders unfolded the assault rifle and checked the clip.  She handled the weapon with the ease of use.  “Grace, don’t use your biotics unless we have no other choice and stay out of view.  They’re looking for you.  Micah, you stay near Grace and don’t let them take her.”

 

Grace looked up at the much taller boy and she tried to still her rapidly beating heart.  This could go very badly.  Normally she was excellent at controlling the emotions that would flow through her.  She could take the temperature of a room and subtly adjust the tides of sentiments.  It wasn’t a biotic ability, it was just innate.  It was natural.  Grace was in control.  But right now she was not in control.  The thoughts flickering through the two people standing beside her were not pleasant.  She could clearly see the multitude of ways that this excursion could fail painted on canvas across their minds.  Grace was used to calming the feelings of hormonal teenagers or the stress over an exam or social anxiety, but fear of death was new to her and she did not know what to do to balance it.  It felt inevitable and final.

 

Instead of continuing the losing battle she was waging against the fear, she decided to accept it.  Grace might die, this might be the end.  Micah might also die or Dr. Sanders.  Her mother and father had died and Grace had accepted that as well.  It wasn’t that she was giving up; it’s just that Grace was accepting that death might be an outcome of today.  She made a mental list of all of the possible outcomes and this somehow made her feel better.  Grace found that instead of avoiding the thought of death, it was much easier to look at it directly.  The normal structure of her mind could then be rebuilt and she could face whatever lay behind the metallic hatch. 

 

Grace drew a deep breath and nodded her readiness to Dr. Sanders.  The hatch swung easily open and the doctor disappeared into the light.  A minute later the two teenagers heard the doctor quietly beckon them out. 

 

The room they entered into looked like an average hospital room, but Grace recognized it as one of the rooms that was used to implant the bio-amps.  Over the short years she had been at the Grissom Academy she had seen the insides of similar rooms more times than most students.  She absently ran a hand over the scar on the back of her neck where her amp had once been.

 

Dr. Sanders was at the door and was peering out into the hallway.  She had a fist raised and Grace caught Micah’s arm and forced him to stay still.  Char may not have taught the girl self-defense, but Grace had definitely picked up the multitude of hand gestures the woman would make.  She had made it a game when they would go out shopping.  It used to be one Grace’s favorite games, where the goal was to treat the benign shopping trip as a mission and to get through the whole excursion without speaking a word.  Char never did anything halfway though, so the game would usually end with the two of them awkwardly running from aisle to aisle trying not to be seen by the staff.  Once or twice Char had had to flash her C-Sec badge to keep from being forcibly removed from the premises.

 

The pleasant reminiscing was cut off by Dr. Sanders motioning the two of them forward before she darted out of the door and down the hall.  Grace hurried to claim the doctor’s previous position at the door. 

 

Grace could see the doctor leaning against the wall and looking around the corner.  Dr. Sanders pulled her body back into cover and signaled to Grace that there were two turians down that section and that she was going to open fire.  Grace quietly relayed this information to Micah, who was slightly pale.

 

Dr. Sanders nodded her head once and Grace could feel the woman mentally preparing herself for the fight.  Hard, grim lines replaced the doctor’s elegant and delicate features. 

 

The harsh sounds of gunfire echoed through the air and Grace frustratingly could not see much.  The doctor would lean out of cover and fire, before pulling herself back and regaining her bearings.  They only had the one clip in the gun and the woman was trying to make every shot count.  A sharp cry and a flash of pain let Grace know that the doctor had been hit. 

 

Grace was unsure of what to do.  Should she run over to the wounded doctor or should she stay where she was?  Micah made up her mind for her again, as he darted down the hall while pulling some medi-gel packs from his pocket.  Grace cautiously followed, but stayed well away from the dangerous corner.

 

Before the turian appeared from behind the corner, Grace felt him.  She could clearly see the map of his mind laid out before her.  She could also feel that he was the last one alive.  The doctor had already taken care of his comrade.  Grace stretched her hand out and felt the cold electric power flush her veins.  She wasn’t a very quick biotic, but she was powerful and she purposefully chose the most painful option she had to debilitate the turian.  She set his flesh on fire. 

 

 

* * *

 

 

The turian took a cautious step backwards when he saw the small girl with her glowing blue arm outstretched towards him.  Fear and hatred of all biotics was chiseled in his plates.  To him they were mutations of a perfectly evolved form.  Human biotics were the worst though.  They were a fleshy and weak species as it was and adding biotics to that mix felt like they were trying to take a dangerous step towards challenging the turians.  When nothing happened after the little girl’s offensive gesture he almost laughed at her.  It was pathetic.  He was a soldier first though and he knew he would have plenty of time to mock her ineptitude after they were all dead.  Well not the girl.  The girl he was going to take with him, she might be the one they were looking for, but to him all humans really looked the same.

 

The woman lying on the ground was out of ammunition, so the next biggest threat was the biotic child currently staring at him.  With that in mind, he shot one of her legs to break her concentration.  He didn’t know what she was doing, but it was really starting to freak him out.  The girl’s tiny face did not register the pain and instead the blue glow became brighter.  That was when he felt it.

 

At first it was simply a discomfort under his plates.  As if he hadn’t oiled them properly and they refused to settle quite right.  It wasn’t pain exactly; it was just irritating and unsettling.  The turian shot her other leg to make her stop.  Instead of stopping, the girl raised both arms and the blue glow completely engulfed her body.  The crackling blue energy spun about her skin, arcing off of her limbs.  Her face was the most terrifying aspect though.  He thought he would have found hate or some other rage fueled emotion.  Instead there was the intentness of concentration at the set of her mouth, but her eyes seemed to bore through him and they held the light of curiosity as if he was just an particularly interesting insect.

 

The mild discomfort under his plates turned into pain.  Not the sharp pain of being struck or hit by a bullet, but deep, throbbing pain.  He tried to shoot her, because damn the mission he wasn’t going to die over a deal.  But he found that his joints had locked up.  The searing pain flared inside of him and he felt his first plate crack.  He tried to cough, but his lungs weren’t working.  The sudden movement took him off balance and by the time he hit the floor, he could feel the pain working its way to his eyes and blurring his vision.  It felt like red hot coals were being driven under his plates and he couldn’t even scream to relieve the pressure.  The turian knew his death lay before him and he found himself beckoning it to come swiftly.  Any release from this would be welcome.

 

A warm presence invaded his dying thoughts and, of all things, it felt like an apology.  Piece by piece, he felt his consciousness blessedly drift away.  Until all that remained was a feint sliver of his self and the warm presence, he might have remained there for a second or an eternity he couldn’t say for sure.  Just like he couldn’t be sure when it was all over, just that at some point … he ceased to exist.

 

* * *

  


 

When she released the turian from his agony and let the biotic glow die from her hands, Grace collapsed to the ground beside his smoking form.  The pain in her legs called to her and tried to make their agony known in her mind, but she effortlessly blocked it.  Her hands shook with what she had just done.  When the turian was dying and mentally screaming in pain, she had … felt pity.  Grace had not felt pity when she used the same technique on Bill and his companion.  She had felt anger and rage, but not pity.  Their internal screams had not shaken her resolve, but the turian’s had.  Grace couldn’t stop the process she had started, so instead she had reached out to the keening man and cast a mental shroud around his mind.  Then she had gently extinguished every thought he had and left him with the final thought of peace.  It wasn’t much of an apology, but she had attempted to ease his suffering. 

 

Micah was kneeling at her legs now and again he was speaking to her, but she didn’t hear him.  To listen to what he was saying to her would require her to peer out from under her own mental shroud and that would let the searing pain of her legs come in.  So instead she nodded at him, while he poured copious amounts of medi-gel into her wounds.  From within her pain-free cocoon she could look clinically at the holes in her legs.  The rifle fire seemed to have missed the bone and instead hit the fleshy parts of her leg, which was definitely a good thing.  Grace turned to look at Dr. Sanders.  The woman was finishing up tending to her own shoulder wound, but looked up when she noticed Grace’s gaze.  Grace was scared to find fear in the woman’s face, fear of her.  Instead there was only a sympathetic and reassuring smile there.  It was motherly and kind and made Grace’s chest ache briefly.

 

Micah snapped his fingers in Grace’s face and brought her attention back to her legs.  Her friend had finished his application of medi-gel and had bound her legs in the clear plastic.  Grace cautiously lifted her mental shroud and found that the pain had been mostly replaced with a cold searing of her flesh knitting itself back together. 

 

“Thank you.”  Grace murmured.

 

“Oh, you can hear me now?”  Micah’s face did hold a tinge of fear and Grace tried not to resent him over it.  She had just done something fairly terrifying.  Grace was already scared of herself and she didn’t like to see that emotion echoed in another’s face. 

 

“Well like I was saying before, the bullet passed right through your leg and I think medi-gel will be enough to take care of the damage, but I wish I had thought to grab some surgical glue from the pharmacy.  That was pretty stupid of me.”

 

“Micah Reede, you have performed admirably.  So stop berating yourself.”  Dr. Sanders interjected amiably.  “And Grace this is the second time you have saved me.  So I’ll thank you again.  We do need to keep moving though.”  Dr. Sanders lifted herself off the ground with a slight groan in pain.  “My office is just down the hall here.”

 

Micah stood awkwardly in front of Grace and nervously shifted from foot to foot.  “I don’t think you’re going to be able to walk yet.  So … um … I think I need to … uh …”

 

Grace blushed slightly and silently cursed her decision to wear a skirt today.  “It’s okay.  I think I do need some help.”  She raised her arms and Micah scooped her up easily off the ground.  He was after all in fairly decent shape and Grace was so tiny. 

 

The injured trio made their way down the hall. Most of the previous caution was gone, because if any hostiles remained on in the vicinity they would have made themselves known after hearing the gunfire.  Dr. Sanders’ office was usually very neat and tidy, Grace remembered from the numerous trips she had made.  However, right now it was as ransacked as the rest of the Academy.  The doctor made little disapproving sounds with her tongue as she moved through the wreck.  Micah quickly set Grace down in a chair and she pretended not to notice his blushing or his hastily removed thoughts about her.   

 

Dr. Sanders reached a hand under her desk and pulled out a small metallic device that Grace did not recognize.  The woman immediately opened her omni-tool and attached the device to the blank gel screen of her desk console. 

 

“This is Dr. Kahlee Sanders from Jon Grissom Academy.  I need to speak with Captain Yelchik immediately.”

 

Grace could just barely make out the image displayed on the woman’s console.  It showed a large room with a number of uniformed people working.  A small man with close cropped black hair stepped into view. 

 

“Dr. Sanders I’m pleased to see you are well.  Can you give us an update on the situation?”

 

“I’ve counted over a hundred armed turians on board, but I’m sure that there are many more.  As I’m sure you are aware we thought we were receiving our weekly shipment and it was replaced by the turian terrorists.”

 

“Yes, we know how they got there.  What is the current situation?”

 

“The terrorists are using some kind of chemical agent that is affecting the biotics on board.  To the best of my knowledge they are still alive, but they are in a coma-like state.  I’m unsure where they are being kept, the last time I saw them was during the biotiball game.  They have already killed at least four of the administrators and I have seen them kill one of the non-biotic students, Miss Hadley.  The leader, I was not given a name, is on level 3 in the atrium.  Captain Yelchik, you must send in a rescue squad.  Negotiations are going to fail.”

 

“Dr. Sanders I assure you that we are doing everything possible.  We have already conducted a valuable and promising negotiation.  I’m sure that with time …”

 

“Captain, they killed a student in front of me without remorse.  I was informed that they are not going to leave anyone alive.  Negotiating isn’t going to stop that.”

 

Grace was impressed with the calm speech of Dr. Sanders, the woman’s emotions were in turmoil, but she was keeping a level head and was speaking with reason laced with firm conviction. 

 

“If they were going to kill everyone, then they would have done it already doctor.”  Yelchik continued.  “We have seasoned negotiators here, who are telling me that that implies they are willing to talk.”

 

“They’re just stalling for time.  They are looking for … someone.”  Sanders’ eyes found Grace and her brow furrowed with quiet sorrow.

 

“Do you know who that is?”  Captain Yelchik leaned against the railing and towards the vid screen expectantly. 

 

“A student, Grace Wallis.”

 

Yelchik leaned back with a puzzled look on his face.  Grace saw another man in a similar uniform as Yelchik’s, but with considerably more ribbons across the front step into view. 

 

“That’s Detective Nacht’s girl isn’t she?”  The deep voice asked.

 

Dr. Sanders looked flustered at the sight of the new man, but quickly regained her composure.  “Yes … um … yes, Grace Wallis is the adopted daughter of Nacht, David … Captain Anderson.”  Dr. Sanders shut her eyes at the slip of formality and a delicate wince graced her face.

 

Anderson ignored the slip and proceeded to speak as if Dr. Sanders was behaving normally.  “Please tell me that you have her.”

 

“I do.”

 

“Good.  I apologize for interrupting, Captain Yelchik.”  Anderson bowed out of view of the screen.

 

The rest of the short meeting went much the same.  Dr. Sanders argued with Captain Yelchik about sending in a team.  He stayed steadfast in his resolve to work this out peacefully.  Grace wanted to agree with him, but she had seen the hate in the turians’ minds herself.  She definitely didn’t want any more loss of life, but she also desperately wanted this to end.  There was also the problem with the sick kids, nobody knew if their condition was only going to worsen.

 

After Dr. Sanders closed the call, she swiftly placed another one. 

 

“Kahlee.”

 

“David.”

 

There was a brief pause as both adults looked at each other, but the masks of professionalism quickly slammed back into place.

 

“Kahlee, Nacht and Vakarian are on the station.”

 

Grace felt her body tense at the words.

 

“How?”  Dr. Sanders asked.

 

“They … hitched a ride.  It doesn’t matter how.  What matters is that you need to rendezvous with them.  Yelchik isn’t going to send a team and I don’t really have any power here.  So they’re the best option we have.  Listen, I’m worried that the turians are going to get what they came for and crash the station into Elysium.  I don’t like putting this pressure on you, but I know that you are more than capable of stopping this.  Do you know why they would want the girl?”

 

Dr. Sanders stole a glance at Grace before replying.  “I have some theories, but I’d rather not go into them over a comm channel.”

 

“Understandable.”  Anderson opened his mouth to say something else, but must have thought better of it because he shut his mouth again.  “Kahlee, take care of yourself.”

 

Dr. Sanders nodded her head and replied.  “You too.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Alright so I’m looking at twenty guards and around fifty prisoners in there.”  Charlie whispered to Garrus.  “What’s our plan?”

 

Garrus gave Charlie yet another exasperated look.  “I’m not a planning machine; you can’t just give me information and expect me to spit out a well-formulated plan of attack in minutes.  These things take time.”

 

Charlie huffed at him and shifted her crouched position into sitting on the ground.  She grumbled under her breath and began to tap testily against the floor with her gloved hand.

 

“What are you doing?”  Garrus asked after a moment, the rhythmic tapping caused his plates to itch.

 

“I’m waiting … patiently.”  Charlie growled. 

 

Garrus rolled his eyes dramatically at her.  It was a very human trait and one that he found was the perfect response to Charlie most of the time.  She was quiet for the moment and Garrus went back to tapping against the orange glow and mapping all of the terrorists’ weaknesses.

 

“You know what I don’t understand.”  Charlie suddenly broke the silence and Garrus made a show of pausing the simulation he was running and turning to give her his full attention.  There was only a hint of sarcasm in the gesture.  Charlie blatantly ignored the dramatization and continued.  “What I don’t understand is why we can’t just go in there and take them out.  I mean, they’re too scared to use their guns, but I’m pretty fantastic at the whole hand-to-hand thing and you are an … alright sniper.”  She tilted her hand back and forth in a “so-so” gesture, which Charlie knew would bother the cocky sniper in Garrus. 

 

“So I run in there draw some attention, be generally awesome, and you hang back and carefully pick them off.  It’s not an elaborate plan, but it’ll work.”

 

Garrus nodded his head as if he was genuinely impressed with her plan.  “So you already know which of these men are the best armed?  And if they have any snipers of their own?  And you can tell from looking at their current positioning where their fallback position is located?  And I’m going to assume that you definitely know whether or not they have any more stealthed guards, based off the few holes that exist in their patrol?”

 

Charlie glared at him and Garrus cut off her undoubtedly witty comeback.  “Also let’s not forget that you are only one person and you’re wearing light armor.  There are going to be twenty men in the room who are intent on taking you down.  It would be suicide.  Especially since you seem to have an injury magnet attached to you.”

 

Charlie went back to sulking on the floor while Garrus tapped against his omni-tool.  It was frustrating to not have a task to complete.  She had already gained access to the security logs and changed them like she had wanted to.  Charlie felt a small smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth.  Garrus was going to be pissed when he found out what she did, but she didn’t see any reason that they should both take the fall for what they were doing here.  The room they were currently in was a supply closet for the station engineers, which meant that it was filthy and smelled deliciously of oil, grease, and harsh chemicals.  Large, heavy machinery littered the cluttered room and half complete projects lay on every surface.  Charlie had never been accused of being a tidy person, so she felt at ease in the room.  Garrus, however, had balked at the disorder.  Charlie could see his hands twitch at the prospect of cleaning it up. 

 

Charlie chuckled at the image of Garrus caught cleaning the room by the terrorists and begging them to let him have a few more minutes to finish tidying it up.  She wished she knew what all of the equipment was for and the short description that hovered by the objects behind her glasses was not exactly helpful.  Ada could be a little too technical sometimes and Charlie didn’t know the first thing about the engine core of a space station. 

_Alliance Model 245.1 T-Class Engine Repair Mechanical Suit._

 

“Ada, is that a mech?”  Charlie whispered to the VI.  The large piece of equipment was partially hidden under a beige canvas tarp.

_T-Class Engine Repair Suit has a high radiation rating and full kinetic barriers to protect the user from mass effect fields within an engine core._

 

Charlie got up and walked over to the hulking behemoth.  “So it’s for a single person?”

_The T-Class Engine Repair Suit grants the user full range mobility and is rated at lifting over three metric tons of weight._

 

Charlie pulled the tarp off and simply stared at the giant piece of machinery.  It was definitely a mech.  The height was about ten feet tall and the metal arms had large pincers located at the ends.

 

“Oh, this will do nicely.  Ada, does it have any weapons?”

_The T-Class Engine Repair Suit is used solely for engine repair and is not built for combat purposes._

 

“I’ll take that as a no, Lovelace.  Can you open it for me?”

 

“Charlie, what the hell are you doing?”  Garrus asked from directly behind her.

 

The plexiglass bubble that made up the front of the suit swung open and Charlie climbed up into it.  Once she had adjusted her legs into the straps, she looked down at Garrus and grinned wickedly.  “I think I solved our ‘Charlie doesn’t have enough shields and armor problem’.”

 

“When did you get a mech classification?”  Garrus asked her.

 

“I didn’t, but I’ll be fine.  It’s just like driving an aircar.”

 

“It’s actually nothing like that at all.  For that matter, I’ve been in an aircar with you … you’re a terrible driver.”

 

Charlie huffed indignantly at the turian.  “I’m an excellent driver.  Just because I push the limits of the engine does not mean that … you know what?  We’ll have this talk later.”  Charlie tapped at her omni-tool and the controls of the suit lit up in an omni-gel glow.

 

“You still don’t know how to drive this.  You’re going get yourself killed.”  Garrus furiously whispered to the woman.

 

Charlie entered another round of commands into her omni-tool and the controls inside of the suit changed drastically.  Now they were far simpler to understand.  “Like I said, it’s just like driving an aircar.  So, I’ll do it the same way by letting Miss Ada Lovelace do most of the work.”

 

Garrus stared slackjawed at Charlie.  “You let a VI control the computer whenever you drive?  I am never getting in another aircar with you.”

 

“I don’t let her control the vehicle, Garrus.  She just changes the control panel into something that I can understand.  That’s how I know that the engine can definitely handle the abuse, by the way.  You’re perfectly safe.”

 

“Charlie Nacht, you are absolutely insane.”

 

“I’ve been called worse.”

 

* * *

 

 

Kenneth Grassi was having a hell of a day.  He had watched his boss be murdered not two hours ago and idly wondered if that now made him the Chief Engineer for the station.  It was pure hyperbole, as he was quite sure that he was not going to live to see the next day.  The turians had made that quite clear.  They were currently working on the engine, his engine, his baby.  Ken couldn’t bring himself to look at what they were actually doing, it was far too painful.  His perfectly calibrated child, it may have been considered pathetic to refer to an engine core as offspring, but Ken didn’t care.  Bruce had left him years ago and with that wonderful man went any hoped of actually reproducing.  So, as incredibly cliché as it sounded, his work became his husband and the core was his daughter; and right now his daughter was being violated by turians. 

 

Ken’s blood boiled at the indecency, but he was a very slight man and he knew that anything he tried to do would just get him killed.  In stature he might not have been impressive, but intellectually he was a powerhouse.  However that did him absolutely no good at the moment.  Ken sent silent glares at the so-called security team around him.  He might not have been able to do anything to prevent this, but surely they could have.  And where was the Alliance in all of this? 

 

His silent ruminations on the injustice of the situation were interrupted a high-pitched whine and mechanical grinding.  Ken immediately recognized that sound of his repair suit being overclocked.  His teeth ached at the violent grinding of gears.  A moment later he saw the large mech come into view as it barreled across the room and into a nearby turian. 

_Oh god, don’t run!  Please, it’s not designed for speed._

 

The muscles in his body tensed and seized at the precious piece of equipment being brutalized.  Ken shook his head to clear it of the negative thoughts.  Surely it didn’t matter if the suit was ruined if the user was here to save them, right?  He flinched when the suit clamps latched on to the turian and squeezed shut; after the turian was clearly dead the arm launched the body across the room towards the rest of the terrorists. 

 

Ken pressed himself flat on the ground and cautiously peered around the side of the bulkhead so that he could watch the spectacle.  A few of the turians had positioned themselves between the core and the mech, with their backs to the core they opened fire on the mech.  The person in the suit charged the group and began pulling the turians apart.  Ken almost missed the loud sniper rifle retort coming from behind him through all of the commotion.  The sniper did not miss though and Ken could see one terrorist after another drop to the ground. 

 

The sounds coming from the mech were getting painful to listen to.  Whoever was operating the suit was pushing the safety boundaries, if not breaking them entirely.  The gears creaked and whirred loudly and the coolant system was hissing with overuse.  However this did not seem to slow the driver down, as the mech charged the terrorists’ fallback position.  The mech picked up the large metallic crate they were using as cover and proceeded to bludgeon the turians with the heavy cube. 

 

Ken watched as every terrorist focused on the mech and felt the cold tongue of fear lap at his insides.  He knew, better than anyone else still alive on the station, how much abuse a T-class mech could take.   If the kinetic barriers were overcharged which, judging by the damage already dealt to the machine, they definitely were, then he doubted the suit could take many more hits before the suit went critical.  Thankfully the sniper was truly excellent and was rapidly picking off the terrorists. 

 

A turian terrorist appeared from the doorway that leads to the elevator.  He was carrying a very large weapon of some kind.  At first, Ken thought it was a large shotgun, but it seemed to have some kind of nozzle attached to the end of the barrel.  When the turian turned to the mech and a spout of liquid fire poured out of the end, Ken figured out what the mystery device was.  The flamethrower wielding turian was carefully keeping the mech in between him and the sniper. 

 

A couple of human security guards, who were still bound, managed to strip some weapons from the dead turians and began to open fire on the terrorists.  This was when Ken finally found his voice and shouted above the din of the fight, “Don’t hit the core or we’re all dead!”  No one seemed to pay any attention to him though. 

 

The mech was starting to give off the high-pitched whine of a system overload.  Ken looked at the humming blue core and then back at the smoldering ruin of the mech.  The suit was powered by a small eezo core, not unlike the much larger core behind him.  If it exploded in this room, it could detonate the reactor of the station engine core. 

 

Ken did not have a plan when he found himself running across the engine room towards the malfunctioning T-class suit.

 

By the time that he made it over to the mech a turian was pulling a human female out of the ruin.  He thought he heard the turian yelling something at the woman, but he didn’t spare a thought for it; just like he didn’t spare a glance around to see if any terrorists were going to attack him.  All that existed for Kenneth Grassi was the mech. 

 

He cursed that his omni-tool had been confiscated by the terrorists.  A quick glance at the red flashing control panel informed that the core was going critical, but it still seemed to be presently functional.  If he had had time or maybe just the appropriate equipment, Ken could have forced a manual and safe shut down.  But he didn’t have that luxury. 

 

Kenneth Grassi was not a hero, he wasn’t.  He was a poor soldier, which was why he had been kicked out of the Alliance, he was a poor lover, which was why Bruce had left him to go back to Earth, and he was a poor friend, which was why he didn’t have any.  But he was an excellent engineer, which was why he knew exactly what he had to do.

 

Without hesitation, Ken climbed into the mech and steered it back to the small repair room from where it had come from.  The legs protested the movement and the interior of the suit was smoking with burning plastic.  Ken didn’t spend precious time considering the likely possibility of his impending death.  If he had, he might have thought of the hundreds of students he was saving with his action.  Or maybe he would have pondered whether this last noble act would let Bruce know that he wasn’t actually a selfish person.  However, it is far more likely that he would have thought about his daughter, the engine core.  How the long hours would turn into days when he was working on her or how nobody else could understand just how fickle she could be.  If her kinetic barriers weren’t modulated at just the right frequency, well she just refused to work properly.  Ken loved her like a friend or a daughter.  When he was alone in the engine room at night, he would talk to her gentle hum.  She never judged, she just quietly listened to him and that was more than most people.

 

No, Kenneth Grassi was not a hero.  He was a father.


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello wonderful people, I come bearing the gift of a new chapter! I'm not sure if I still have readers on this site, but even if I don't It's all good. I will continue to update this story. By the way, how crazy is it at how long this has gotten? I still have so much left to tell!

“You!”  Garrus grabbed the nearest human by the arm and gestured to Charlie’s still smoking form.  “Where is the emergency aid kit?”

 

Fear flashed in the eyes of the human male, as the towering turian roared at him.  After what felt like hours, but was probably closer to seconds a large kit was handed to Garrus.  He quickly sorted through the equipment until he found the smoke inhalation kit.  It included a breathing mask, some liquid medications that were to be inhaled in vaporized form, and a nebulizer.  As he expertly arranged the devices on Charlie and began the treatment he muttered to himself.

 

“Oh, I don’t need a helmet, Garrus, I’m going to be in a mech.  What would I need a helmet with an _independent_ air supply for?”  He was using his slightly racist “Charlie” voice for that, before he switched to his normal voice to say, “Oh I don’t know Charlie, maybe it’s because you attract trouble with your reckless behavior?  Maybe it’s because we can’t get through a single mission without you almost dying?  Maybe it because you’re a goddamn shmuck who thinks it’s a fantastic idea to charge a group of turians, one of whom has a fucking flamethrower?”

 

Charlie’s ragged coughing brought him out of his raging torrent of words.  She opened her ash covered eyes and squinted at him, before moving the mask to one side and rasping.  “You shouldn’t call me that.  S’not a nice word.”

 

“I’ll call you whatever I want to.  You almost got killed … again.”

 

“You’re a shmuck … I don’t have a penis, Garrus.”  Charlie’s laughter at her own joke sent her gasping for oxygen and Garrus firmly positioned the mask back in place. 

 

“Fine, you’re an idiot who’s going to suffocate if you don’t stop making terrible jokes.  Now sit there and let this treatment do some good.”

 

Charlie was quiet for a moment while she inhaled the medicinal vapor and watched Garrus apply medi-gel and ointment to her burns.  Her armor wasn’t exactly ruined.  Well the armor part was definitely ruined, but the battery packs and shields appeared to still be operational.  Maybe she had enough credits saved up to get some better armor this time.  Maybe one with a built-in medi-gel dispenser?  That would be fantastic.

 

A thought crossed Charlie’s mind and she had to vocalize the question.  “What happened to the mech?”

 

She saw Garrus spare a glance towards the back room before he looked in her eyes.  “One of the engineers … took care of it.”

 

Familiar dread coiled in Charlie’s center.  “What does that mean?”

 

Garrus didn’t look at her and instead focused the burn on her neck.  Charlie nudged him gently, prompting him to speak.  “He drove the mech into the store room and it went critical in there.  He didn’t make it.  This room is shielded from electro-magnetic bursts, so the engine core is safe.”

 

“I killed another one.”

 

“You didn’t do this.”  Garrus said with quiet conviction.

 

“No, I did.  You were right, I pushed the suit beyond its capability and I recklessly endangered everyone.  Someone else had to pay the price of my incompetence.”

 

Garrus stopped applying the medi-gel and firmly took hold of Charlie’s chin, forcing her to look at him.  The set of his face was hard and full of anger. 

 

“I am tired of this self-flagellation that you put yourself through.  Do you have any idea how self-centered you sound right now?  Do you think you are being noble in taking the credit for people’s deaths?  Well you’re not.  People die, Charlie.  It happens.  Some of those deaths are noble, like the engineer’s and like Sharisse’s.  When you blame yourself for their demise, you are stealing the meaning that their deaths had.  That engineer sacrificed himself to save everyone on this station.  You didn’t do that, he did.”

 

Charlie tried to pull her chin out of Garrus’ grasp, but he tightened his hold on her.  “If I didn’t ruin the suit, then he wouldn’t have had to.”  She spat at him.

 

“And if I didn’t convince you to steal a shuttle to come up here, then he wouldn’t have had to.  And if the Alliance had sent an actual team up here, then he wouldn’t have had to.  And if the turian rebels hadn’t attacked this station, then he wouldn’t have had to.  Why the hell aren’t you blaming anyone else?  Do you know why you aren’t?”

 

In that moment, Charlie hated him.  She didn’t vocalize that emotion, but she didn’t have to; the acidic venom in her watery eyes did the speaking for her.

 

“It’s because blaming yourself is easy.  It’s selfish and conceited to think that you deserve all of the credit for everything that happens around you.  It’s not noble, it’s lazy.  You know what is noble?  Accepting their sacrifice and continuing the mission; if we fail and everyone dies anyway, then we let the engineer down.  I know it’s hard to accept that although you played a role in his death that you aren’t responsible for it, but life is hard and you need to keep moving.”

 

Garrus released his hold on her chin and went back to applying ointment to her singed flesh. 

 

“I think I hate you.”  Charlie murmured.

 

Garrus snorted, it was a rueful sound.  “Well I think you are a terrible liar.”

 

* * *

 

 

Grace closed her mind with an effort.  The pain of reaching so far wasn’t like a physical sensation, it was much worse.  She couldn’t reach out and find one person she had to touch everyone at once and the conflicting emotions and thoughts were too much for her.  It left her feeling violated and bruised.  She lifted her mental shroud and tried to piece her own identity back together.  It was difficult to do so.  Grace couldn’t prevent the stray thoughts and memories that she would pick up from the minds that she touched.  They would cling to the fabric of her consciousness and trail back to her when she closed her mind.  She would then need to sift through her own thoughts and disregard whatever did not originate within her.  It was tiresome and tedious work, but she couldn’t risk an intruding thought.  The thought of losing her identity was a very real concern of hers.

 

However the exercise had been a success, she had found them.  They were too far away to communicate with, but Grace had felt Char and Garrus like a beacon.  Their minds usually harmonized and seemed to amplify their already impressive presence.  Char and Garrus had felt stressed and anxious, but Grace didn’t think that they were actively in danger. 

 

Grace carefully removed the mental shroud and found that her body had curled itself into a fetal position while she was away.  Dr. Sanders was crouched over her and had a hand wrapped around Grace’s wrist.  Grace blinked up at the woman.

 

“Oh thank god, you’re awake.”  Dr. Sanders breathed at her.

 

“Sorry.  I found them.”  Grace offered.

 

“Grace, what did you just do?”  Dr. Sanders asked while she checked the girl’s pupils.

 

Grace rubbed her face.  It always felt so odd when she removed the mental shroud.  To go from no senses to all five of them at once was a little jarring.  “I can’t really explain it.  I just reached out for them and found them.  It’s like trying to describe walking to a tree.”

 

“I don’t want you to do that again.  I thought that you had finally succumbed to the toxin the terrorists pumped in.  Your breathing was shallow and your pulse was very weak.  Comatose is the closest description I have for it, Grace.”

 

“I didn’t mean to scare you, but I had to find Char.”  Grace whispered.  She really did not want to explain herself to the woman.  Every time she had tried to make a human understand what she could do, she got a lecture and firm command not to do it again.  Well almost every human, Char hadn’t done that and neither had some of the other students.  But it made Grace feel separate from everyone else.  It was like she wasn’t really human and that frightened her.

 

“How long was I out?”  Grace had never pushed herself that hard before and the stiffness in her joints informed her that some time had passed.

 

“24 minutes.”  Dr. Sanders informed her.

 

Grace numbly accepted this information and looked around at her surroundings.  When she had first pulled the shroud around her she was in Dr. Sanders’ office, but now she was back in the cold darkness of the maintenance tunnels.  She turned around and found Micah nervously looking at her.  He pulled his long sleeve over his hand and wiped her face.  When he withdrew his sleeve, Grace saw a red stain on the fabric.  Startled she touched her face and found the source of the blood was the familiar burn of a nosebleed. 

 

“Well?”  Micah asked her.

 

“Well what?”  Grace responded.

 

He gave her a shy smirk and said.  “I thought you were supposed to be a psychic.”

 

Grace let herself be buoyed by the wave of amusement that rolled off of him.  She hated that word not just because it was inaccurate, but because it carried a certain stigma.  “Not a psychic.  Also it’s rude to look in someone’s head without asking first.”

 

“I’ll remember you said that.  But I was asking where they are.”

 

“The engine room, I think.”  Grace responded.  She wasn’t perfectly sure that’s where they were, as they were too far away to actually step into their minds, but the location felt right and she could feel the distinct sense of a nearby source of element zero.  As the engine was really the only place that had one, Grace figured it was a safe bet.

 

“Are you going to be okay to walk?”  Dr. Sanders asked Grace, who still had a streak of red blood across her face.

 

As a response, Grace shakily stood up and put an arm around Micah’s shoulders.

 

* * *

 

 

“I don’t care who you are, I am the head of security at Jon Grissom Academy.”  The middle-aged human male spat at Garrus.

 

“I understand, but we are here to help and clearly you didn’t perform your job very well or turian rebels wouldn’t have taken over.”  Garrus growled right back.

 

Charlie sighed as she finished reattaching her charred armor.  The two males had been yelling at each other for the past few minutes and it was really starting to get on her nerves.  It had been aggravating before, but she had been trying to let Garrus work it out himself.  Now she was just fed up with both males.

 

“I’m not taking orders from a turian.”  The male with the military buzz-cut ground out.  He had chutzpah; she had to give him that.  Garrus stood an easy foot and half taller than the man and cut an imposing and frankly terrifying figure. 

 

Charlie stomped over to the men and grabbed the human male by his front and spun him to look at her.  She drew herself up to her full height and pushed her face directly into the man’s.  It was the kind of show that she had found worked well on military types. 

 

“Did the turians give you brain damage or were you always an idiot?”  Her voice had taken on the low and dangerous quality it always did when she was really pissed.  Charlie had been known to yell, well actually she was well-known for her shouting matches, but she never yelled when she was actually angry.

 

The ex-soldier tried to pull himself out of Charlie’s grasp, but she spun them both so that he was slammed up against the wall.  She took care not to actually damage him, she only wanted his attention.

 

“I’ll take that as a yes.  Now we are going to take back this station and I need to know right now whether or not you are going to be a problem.”

 

“My men won’t take orders from you, bitch.”  The man screamed in her face.  Little splashes of saliva were scattered across Charlie’s face, but she didn’t react quite the way he had been expecting. 

 

Instead she leaned back and shouted.  “Is anyone here going to have a problem with accepting orders from either me or Detective Vakarian?”

 

The response that was given to her was a moment of silence where the only sound to be heard was the gentle humming of the engine core.  Charlie grinned and resumed her position inches from the guard’s face.  “I think your men are infinitely more intelligent than you.  Now because I’m such a lovely bitch, I’m going to ask you the question again.  Are you going to be a problem, because we could use your help in liberating this station and saving the lives of the children?”

 

His answer seemed to cause him physical pain as it was pulled from his lips.  “No, I’m not going to be a problem.”

 

Charlie studied the man’s face for a moment before releasing him.  He was more than going to be a problem, but she hadn’t been lying … she did need him.  There were only thirty of them altogether and every extra man counted especially seasoned military types.

 

Charlie turned back around to Garrus, who said.  “I was handling it.”

 

“Yeah, but you were taking far too long.”  She said with a dry smirk.  Her face turned serious when she asked.  “Where is the prisoner?”

 

Garrus jerked his head towards the back of the large room and said.  “Let me take this one.  You always get to play ‘bad cop’.”

 

“That’s because I’m so damn good at it.  Besides he’s a turian and you’re not very scary.  You’re like a giant teddy bear … well a giant furless teddy bear.”  Charlie paused as she conjured up the image and added.  “Actually that sounds nightmare inducing, so forget that.  My actual point is that what is scarier to a xenophobic turian rebel; a turian from a well-known family on Palaven or a crazy human female?”

 

“Fine you can do the interrogating, but I’m going to be there.”

 

“Of course you are.  You’re the good cop.”  Charlie grinned at Garrus and walked briskly towards the turian prisoner. 

 

Charlie looked down at the turian male who had clearly already taken some physical abuse.  Blue blood was streaked across his undersuit and his fringe looked damaged.  A quick glance at the nearby human guards’ boots revealed blue stains and confirmed Charlie suspicions.  It bothered her that the humans had abused their prisoner, as at her core she liked to follow the rules.  But she firmly reminded herself that today she could not afford remorse or squeamishness.  Not when Grace’s life was in danger.  If this turian had been attacking her, she would have had no problem killing him.  But torturing a prisoner was grim work and not an activity she relished in.  Scaring prisoners, Charlie was absolutely fine with.  She shook those thoughts out of her head and steeled herself against the likely possibility of following through on those threats.

 

“ **Get up.** ”  Charlie put every ounce of command she possessed into the words.  On pure reflex, the turian twitched to stand and obey, but caught himself before he actually stood.  Charlie leaned down and lifted the turian off the ground and forced him to stand.  She thanked the strength mods yet again.

 

“I’m not talking.”  The turian informed her.

 

Charlie didn’t say anything in response to his statement and instead focused on his face.  The color of his plates was a dusky charcoal that Charlie knew was rather rare and largely considered exotic and beautiful by turians.  The shade was complemented by elaborate silver swirls that swept up his mandibles and over his eyes.  Charlie wasn’t exactly an expert on turian beauty, but it was definitely aesthetically pleasing.  The fine cracks and slightly dulled opalescence to his plates, told her that he was middle-aged and couldn’t be younger that fifty.  Her visor informed her that the markings placed him as a native of a small rural colony of Ionius. 

 

Charlie considered the tone to take with the turian.  She considered yelling, but quickly dismissed it.  Yelling at a turian only caused them to mirror the tone back and they were vocally much better equipped.  No, a quiet calm voice would be the best.  Charlie made sure she cleared her throat of rage before continuing.  “I need some information and then I promise that you won’t be harmed.”

 

 

“May the spirits vacate your soul.”  The Ionian turian spoke the words with conviction and venom.

 

“If I do not receive that information, I will not leave here until I do.”  Charlie continued; her face an impassive mask.

 

“You’re wasting your time.”

 

“Don’t you even want to know what information I’m looking for?”  When the turian didn’t respond, Charlie continued to speak.  She was very careful not to once look him in the eyes.  She pointedly chose some part of dead space behind him and only watched him from her peripheral vision.  It was a minor insult, but it was just a start.  “What I want to know is who sent you here?  Clearly you are not here of your own accord.  Someone is paying you to look for something or someone.  I want to know who or what that is.  Is that so much to ask?”

 

“We are here to teach humans a lesson about their aggressive expansion.”

 

“See that’s your first lie.”  Charlie grasped the turian under his shoulder and sharply twisted up and back.  There was an audible snap and grinding sound.  It was not a fatal injury, she simply broke the arm joint and cracked a couple of back plates, but it was an extremely painful one.  Charlie was a little impressed that Garrus didn’t show any remorse on his tightly drawn facial plates.  He had received this injury enough times from her to know exactly what it felt like. 

 

The Ionian turian roared with pain etched in every subvocal.  He strained against the handcuffs and growled at Charlie.  She spread her face into a wide smile, taking care to show her teeth.  “Vakarian, undo his restraints.  I believe they might be too tight for his soft plates.”

 

Garrus mutely did as she asked.  Charlie seemed to take an unimpressed and casual stance in front of the turian, as if whatever action he performed after being released didn’t concern her.  In reality, her muscles were poised for retaliation and she was paying careful attention to his minute movements.  His right arm would be useless from the injury she had already inflicted.  The turian captive did not immediately lunge for Charlie and instead adjusted his right arm with his left. 

 

“Now would you like to tell me the truth or will I have to repeat myself?”  Charlie said quietly.

 

“Fuck you.”  The turian growled at her.

 

“Well that didn’t exactly sound like a lie, but it wasn’t an answer either.  Vakarian what do you think?”

 

Garrus didn’t say anything, but he pressed the silver-stained turian against the wall with a hand on his injured shoulder.  The captive turian reflexively shot his left arm to grapple with Garrus, but Charlie easily caught the limb and pinned it against the wall.  She then moved her hand into the familiar position underneath his shoulder as a warning.

 

“That wasn’t very nice.  Now answer the question.  Who hired you?”  Charlie let a little growl show through as she spoke in his ear.

 

“We are Facinus, we are not bought.”

 

Charlie had to use her “cop face” to keep from wincing when she repeated the maneuver and broke his left shoulder.  The air was filled with his screaming that was now laced with fear as well as rage and pain.

 

Charlie leaned her face against his and spoke directly in his ear.  The turian jerked away from the physical contact like she knew he would.  “That was another lie.  So here’s the thing,” Charlie’s voice was little more a whisper and when she paused she could feel her throat involuntary growl.  “I know that you were bought and paid for.  I have little doubt that you wanted to attack this station anyways, but someone paid whatever price you had to do something on this station.  Maybe they helped you in the planning stage or maybe gave you weapons, I don’t know and don’t care.  All I want to know is who it was and what they wanted.  I _know_ it was someone who is powerful, because that chemical you used on the kids has a name.  It’s called Omega-Enkaphalin and the last group to use it was a group of human terrorists.  Surely you weren’t paid by humans to attack humans now were you?”

 

The turian twitched at her last sentence and Charlie withdrew from his ear. 

 

“I’m not telling you anything.”  His voice still held notes of pain and fear, but resolve was curiously missing.

 

Charlie looked down at the turian’s arms and shrugged.  “Well you’re all out of arms, so I guess we’ll have to try something different.”  She reached up to his face and wrapped one hand tightly around his left mandible.  “Now, because I am such a kind person I’m going to give you one last chance to talk.”  Charlie said behind bared and gritted teeth.

 

“I hope Axxitus kills the little bitch.”  He said with panic chittering his subvocals.

 

“Are you going to elaborate?  Or am I going to pull this off and shove it so far up your cloaca that you’ll be shitting your own plates?”  Charlie braced her free hand against his chest and gave a slight warning tug on the mandible.

 

The turian didn’t respond so Charlie said in a slightly louder voice.  “Vakarian, remove the lower half of his undersuit.”  Garrus pulled out a knife and immediately went to work at slicing through the tight black fabric. 

 

The turian still refused to speak and started to shake and dart his eyes around the room.  Again Charlie was forced to swallow any pity that was threatening to form.

 

“Last chance.”  Charlie whispered and for the first time she met his eyes and held his gaze.

 

When he still refused to speak, she started to pull slowly and firmly at the mandible.  Charlie held his gaze the entire time.  When she felt the first joint stretch and pop, she paused to listen for any intelligible words amidst the screaming. 

 

“We … we were supposed to … ”  He spluttered as the blue blood poured from his face.

 

“Yes?”  Charlie asked impatiently, still not removing her hand.

 

“There was a girl … we were supposed to bring her back.”

 

The familiar sensation of dread slithered back into her middle.  “Name?”

 

“Some biotic bitch.”  At Charlie’s helpful pull at the injured mandible, he continued.  “Grace … Grace Wallis.”

 

“You know the drill.  I had two questions.  Since you answered one already, maybe I’ll only shove half of your mandible up your …”

 

“Shadow Broker.”  The bloodied turian immediately responded.  “We weren’t told why, I swear to my ancestor’s spirits.  He wanted her unharmed and he gave us information about the station and credits, in return.”

 

Charlie released her hold on the turian and he sank to the ground his slack mandible flopping uselessly against his face.  She turned away and motioned for the human guards to resume their watch over the injured turian.  A tall red-headed human stopped her.

 

“What are we going to do with him, ma’am?”

 

“Keep a guard on him.”

 

The man shuffled his feet and appeared genuinely nervous when he said.  “Ma’am we can’t take him with us, which means we’ll have to leave a guard or two here.  Isn’t that a waste of resources?”

 

“What’s your name?”  Charlie asked.

 

“Frank Evans.”

 

“Alright Frank, I made a promise to him that I wouldn’t kill him if he talked.  Now I’m not generally a liar, so we’re going to do everything we can to uphold that promise.”

 

Evans nodded his head and went back to guarding the turian.  Garrus leaned down to Charlie’s ear and whispered something.  Charlie gave him a surprised look and then nodded her head. 

 

“Ionian.”  Charlie called as she turned back to the crumpled heap of turian.

 

He didn’t raise his head, but he responded.  “Yes?  You said that you only had two questions.”

 

“That I did, but I have another deal for you.  My friend here, Vakarian, wants to give you some medical aid.  He doesn’t have the equipment to fix your shoulders, but he can stop the bleeding and take some of the pain away.  I just have one more question.”

 

A new tone had entered his subvocals, subservience.  It was not a pleasant addition to his voice and Charlie felt deeply disturbed by the light keen.  “What’s the question?”

 

“What were you told about the drug you used?”

 

The turian was quiet for a long time and Charlie was about to leave when she heard him speak. 

 

“You seemed to know about it already and I’m not sure what I can add to that.  It was marketed to us as a way to stop biotics without a confrontation.  I don’t know how it works though.  We were only told that it works best as an injection, but it is usable as an aerosol.”

 

Charlie turned back to Garrus and shrugged.  That was a useless question.  She wasn’t sure if the answer was worth the medical supplies.  Garrus stepped forward and crouched in front of the blue covered turian. 

 

“Were you given an antidote?”  Ada informed Charlie that Garrus had added a command-superior subvocal.  Not for the first time, Charlie wished that she could hear the tones with her natural audible range.

 

The turian jerked his head up at Garrus’ voice and gave Charlie a better view of the damaged mandible.  She felt the acidic burn of bile at the sight of his barely attached facial plate.

 

“There didn’t need to be one.  We were told that the effect only lasted for four standard hours.”

 

Relief flooded Charlie’s veins and her legs threatened to fold under her.  She had been bracing herself for the possibility of finding Grace dead from O-E exposure.  Charlie decided to leave Garrus alone with the captive, because her body demanded a sit down.  She stiffly walked across the room and slid down the side of a work station. 

 

Charlie sat there looking down at the blue blood that coated her hands.  A pair of turian boots invaded her vision and forced her to look up. 

 

“Are you okay?”  Garrus asked her as he dropped a cloth into her hands.

 

Charlie scrubbed at the drying blood and said.  “Yes.  No.  I don’t know.  Torturing isn’t exactly a skill I wanted to list on my resume.”

 

Garrus awkwardly crouched in front of her.  “I know, but if you hadn’t then we wouldn’t have known about O-E or the Shadow Broker’s involvement.  You didn’t do any permanent damage, just painful.”

 

Charlie nodded her head as she accepted this and looked up at Garrus.  “If we make it out of here … what would you do if I was able to get you off the hook with the Alliance?”

 

Garrus’ mandibles twitched and he set a hand on her shoulder.  “No way, we are in this together.  We save Grace together, we stop the rebel bastards together, and we do the jail time together.  Got it?”

 

Charlie forced a smile to show on her face and stood up.  “Well I think you should work on a plan of action if we’re going to get all of that done.  I’ll take care of healing the turian.  Can I have your medical bag?” 

 

Garrus unhooked that small flat case from his back and handed it to her.  He had wisely chosen to bring his own first aid kit, because of the lack of dextro species on the station.  Charlie had to turn away from him and quickly walk to the injured turian; because Garrus was far too good at reading her intentions and there was no way that she was going to let him take the fall for this mission.

 

* * *

 

 

Now that they knew that the biotics lives were not in immediate danger, well not in danger of the drug, Garrus decided that they needed to take a few minutes to formulate an actual plan of attack.  He gathered the security personnel together and included them in his process.  They knew the layout of the station better than he did and they knew what precautions were in place for an attack.  Garrus had to suppress the groan when he discovered that there weren’t very many precautions.  Mostly because this was a school and apparently the humans did not think of it as a target.  The best they had built into the station was strategically placed bulkheads.  Although they were really in place because the station was in space and decompression was always a fear.

 

“Detective, we’ve got some movement over here.”  A young security officer called from the screen he was watching.

 

“What is it?”  Garrus asked as he moved to stand behind him.

 

“Well, sir, it looks like they are pulling some of their men from the auditorium and their spreading out over the station.  It’s … odd.”

 

Garrus reached over to the screen and flipped between the cameras to follow the turians.  They had definitely broken up into small groups and they were thoroughly and professionally searching every level simultaneously.  However, this meant that they only left a few men to guard the auditorium which held the students and the majority of the staff.  Apparently, during the time it took for Garrus and Charlie to take over engineering the four separate groups of captives had been consolidated into a single large one.

 

“They haven’t found Grace, yet.”  Garrus muttered.

 

“Shit!”  Garrus heard Charlie call from across the room.  “We’ve got a problem.”

 

Garrus straightened himself and stared at her over the console.  “What is it?”

 

Instead of answering she bolted across the room and pulled a guard off the nearest console.  The man yelled at her, but Charlie ignored him and began to tap rapidly against the screen.  As Garrus sprinted over to the hunched over woman, he could hear the stream of expletives tearing themselves from her mouth.  He knew better than to question her actions when she was so intent.  Her voice may have been stringing together nonsensical words, but her face had harsh tense lines cutting across her features.  Most people’s eyes narrowed when they were concentrating, but Charlie’s always did the opposite.  They would open wide, as if that would allow her to see more of the screen.

 

It frustrated Garrus that he couldn’t quite make out what she was doing, as most of the process was going on behind her omni-glasses.  He didn’t know how the woman could split her concentration between the two devices, but she had become almost seamless at the process.  Garrus could tell that she was trying to gain control of some system, but which system was a mystery.

 

“Son of a bitch!”  Charlie cried as she kicked the bottom of the panel. 

 

“What happened?”  Garrus couldn’t help the bark in his voice.

 

“They’re much better than me is what happened!”  Charlie screamed in his face.  She scrubbed her face with her hands and Garrus decided now what not the time to comment on the turian blood that she left there.

 

“They’ve gained control of the station’s thrusters.  I’ve been completely locked out from the command deck.”  Charlie said.

 

“Can you get back in?”

 

Charlie gave him a disbelieving look and shoved him backwards.  “Do you think I would have used the words ‘completely locked out’ if I could?  I’m not a goddamn magician, Garrus.  A course has been laid in and it’s locked to anyone who isn’t physically there.  Even _if_ I was magically transported to the damn console, I would need, at least, ten maybe fifteen minutes to change it.”

 

“Then we need to get up there.”

 

Charlie let out a violent burst of air from her mouth and flicked the screen a few times to bring up an image.  “They activated the emergency bulkheads.  No one is getting in or out of that room quickly.  We might be able to get in there, but it would probably take longer than we have.”

 

Garrus shut his eyes and passed a hand over his face.  “They’re crashing the station.”  He whispered.

 

“Got it in one, well done.”  Charlie said in a dry monotone voice.  “Not just crashing it either, they’re aiming it.  Okeanos, population 2.5 million.  It’s the perfect target for them.  Majority of the residents are human and it’s a large metropolis that boasts coalition with the other species.  Garrus, I can’t stop this.  We’ve got about forty minutes, give or take, before the station is close enough to Elysium that gravity will take over.”

 

Garrus did not say a word as he dug a talon between the plates at the base of his skull.  It was an old habit, one that his mother was always berating him about. 

_Options, I need options.  Can we sabotage the thrusters manually?  No, not in time.  Sabotage the engine?_

 

Garrus glanced at the humming metallic structure washed in blue light. 

_Not without causing a core breach or cutting power to the entire station, which would, of course, kill everyone who wasn’t in an environmental suit.  And that wouldn’t stop the station from crashing; it would only affect the trajectory._

 

“Garrus.”  Charlie looked up at him and he realized that he had never truly seen fear in his ex-partner’s eyes before.  Panic?  Yes, but not fear.  She didn’t have any options either.  

 

“Excuse me, I have an idea.”  The two of them turned and looked at the security chief, who, after his initial altercation, had remained quiet.  “The turians’ ship should still be attached in the docking bay.  If we can’t stop the station from going down, at least we can get people off.”

 

Charlie was shaking her head, though.  “I’m not leaving without Grace and we’d never be able to get through the men they have watching the students and be able to get off the station in time.”

 

“Actually, they just removed quite a few guards from watching the students.”  Garrus said.  “They’ve spread out on the station and I think they’re looking for Grace.”

 

“I don’t understand what they’re thinking.”  Charlie said with a strained tone of exasperation.  “Why are they relaxing their guard and crashing the ship.  What the hell is their plan?”

 

Garrus stilled his offending talon from digging under plate and drew a breath.  Solving puzzles was something he was quite good at and this one had finally clicked into place.  “The Shadow Broker has paid them to bring him Grace.  Right?”

 

Charlie sneered at the mention of the name, but nodded her head.

 

“It makes sense that if they do not deliver Grace to him, or her, their families will be at risk.  So they have two missions.  One is to destroy and crash the station.  The other is to get Grace back to the Broker.  They knew that this was a one-way trip for most of them, but Grace has to make it off.”

 

“So why are they crashing the ship now?”  Charlie asked.

 

“Because we attacked them and that forced them to move the timetable up.  They’re scared that they’ll fail at both missions and they are securing that they will, at least, destroy the station.”

 

“Damn.  So we get the students and staff off of the station and then what?  Let them destroy the station and take a huge chunk of Okeanos?  And what about Grace?  I’m not leaving her here.”

 

Garrus didn’t have an answer for that question.  He wasn’t leaving without the girl either, but he didn’t know how to find her.  However, they did know where some of the children were and they had to save them. 

 

“We’ll find her, but we have to start somewhere.  Let’s hit the auditorium.”

 

The plan was actually quite simple, in the end.  They tossed around a few more complicated ideas, but Garrus decided that simple was the best way to go.  The Chief of Security, Randall Quinn, would lead an obvious assault team up the elevator and directly hit the turians.  While Charlie and Garrus took some maintenance access tunnels up to the level and flanked them. 

 

Since they couldn’t leave the turian that Charlie had “questioned” alone in the engine room and they didn’t want to kill him, they sent four men to the docking port with the turian.  The injured terrorist still did not have full use of his arms, so Garrus didn’t feel like they were endangering guards.  Also they needed the port clear of hostiles before they started to send the children down.

 

Garrus looked over at his friend as Charlie savagely tied her unruly hair back from her face.  The obstinate woman had declared her helmet “useless” as it had been thoroughly scorched.  Garrus knew that unless he welded the damn thing to her armor, she was not going to use it.  The scars that were deeply etched into her face and neck were clear evidence of her hatred of the device.  Garrus was struck by how inhuman the woman before him appeared.  She was taller than almost every human female he had ever met, and taller than quite a few males.  She had wild frizzy black curls swirling about her face and neck as they broke free of the hair tie.  The bit of olive toned flesh that was visible under her heavily charred armor was broken by old scars and fresh burns.  Her nose had a large bump in the middle and sat crookedly on her face and her obscenely large eyes were almost hidden behind the orange omni-gel panel.  The only facial feature that wasn’t large was her mouth which was simply a grim line as she checked her shotgun for the fourth time.  Beautiful was not a word that one would have used to describe his friend.  Dangerous was, though.  Dangerous, fiercely protective, and definitely more than a little insane. 

 

“What?”  Charlie asked him with her chin jutted out, as if daring him to question her decision to not wear the helmet. 

 

“You should know that bullets cannot be deflected by unruly hair.”  Garrus deadpanned.  He had to suppress the smirk that was tugging at his mandible as he watched her face contort in usual ways.  She was also very predictable. 

 

“You’re right.  I guess I’ll have to don arrogance and snark too or does that only work if I have dulling plates?”  Charlie gave him a smirk and clipped her folded shotgun to her thigh.

 

“Oh good, you’ve decided to go with bitchiness.  I suppose that will also work.”  He drawled as she stepped into the maintenance shaft. 


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All of the story from this point forward has been written since my return from my break. I'm not super excited about this chapter, but it took me a little while to feel comfortable writing again. So please forgive me. I was going to post this yesterday, but well ... there was this game or whatever on Sunday and it stole some of my attention.

Grace was bouncing nervously on the balls of her feet while the elevator door slowly closed.  Why were elevators so impossibly slow in their every function?  The trio had been keeping to the maintenance tunnels, but Dr. Sanders had decided that it was worth it to make a break for an elevator.  The tunnels were just too cramped and moving between levels took far too long. 

 

“Grace calm down.  You’re freaking me out.”  Micah said from behind her.

 

Grace stopped her bouncing, but couldn’t stop her fingers tapping against her sides.  She could feel the turians on this level.  They were close, very close and there was no doubt in her mind that they were looking for her.  She just had to make it a little bit further and then Char would be there.  Grace would feel so much better if she could just see Char or Garrus.

 

The elevator slowly descended and Grace began quietly counting the levels.  Dr. Sanders had deactivated stops so that the only time the door would open would be into Engineering where Char and Garrus were.  Grace’s legs still had a dull ache from where the rifle had shot her and she gained a new respect for both of the adults in her life.  Char and Garrus had each been shot multiple times and they had never made it seem like it was a big deal, even when Char had had to go Huerta.  Grace had never felt pain like the bullet wounds.  It felt like a red hot metal rod had been driven into her legs.  Even now it hurt to stretch the injured muscles.  Grace remembered the story of how Char had gotten shot in her leg and still kept moving and even attacking the mercenaries.  The woman hadn’t even slowed down until the shotgun round to her chest.  Garrus had his own stories like Char’s and more of them too.

 

The soft ding of the elevator brought the girl out of her thoughts and into the present.  Dr. Sanders gently pushed the teenagers into a corner and positioned herself so that only her upper body and rifle were exposed to the room.  She looked at Grace, silently questioning her whether there were hostiles nearby.  Grace was already quite familiar with the routine and reached out gently to the surrounding area.

 

“A few humans and one turian.”  Grace whispered to the doctor.

 

Dr. Sanders sharply nodded her understanding and cautiously moved out of the elevator. 

 

“Drop the weapon and move out where we can see you.”  A male and very human voice called from down the hall.

 

Grace heard the sound of a rifle being slid across the metallic floor and Dr. Sanders say.  “It’s alright, I’m Dr. Kahlee Sanders.  I work here.”

 

“Oh jeez, Dr. Sanders it’s great to see you.  Are you alright?”  The male voice responded and Micah peeked out from the side of the elevator.  Grace tugged at his arm to pull him back.

 

“I’m fine.  Is Charlotte Nacht here?”

 

“Actually she just went up to the gymnasium.  They’re going to free the students and then we’re getting off this station.  You should all come with us.”

 

Grace and Micah moved out of the elevator and the man took a small step backwards when he recognized the girl.

 

“Good lord, you found her.”

 

“What’s going on?  How are we getting off the station?”  Dr. Sanders asked, ignoring the man’s exclamation.

 

“The turians are crashing the station and we’re going to steal their ship.”  The man answered before turning back to Grace.  “I need to call Nacht right away.  She and Vakarian were really worried about you.”

 

It’s often said that time slows down during a firefight or life-and-death situation, but that is the opposite of the truth.  In fact, time continues on at the normal speed and if anything your perception of it is quickened.  At least, that is how Grace felt when several events seemed to take place simultaneously. 

 

The first event was the gentle announcement of one of the elevators reaching the floor with a soft chime.  Then the door slowly slid open.  The human guard was in the process of using his omni-tool, presumably to make that call to Charlie, when he heard the sound.  He wasn’t quick enough and his body jerked violently backwards accompanied by a colorful spray of red mist.  At the same time, Dr. Sanders dropped to one knee and smoothly lifted her assault rifle towards the still opening elevator door and opened fire.  Harsh splashes of cobalt blood splattered on the floor. 

 

Grace was frozen in place.  She did not know what to do.  She looked around for cover.  A wall or a plant or a bench, anything really.  Finding no immediate safety, she froze.  Panic and fear swept through her.  Little thoughts of what she should be doing flittered through her mind and none of them were particularly helpful or coherent.  Micah, however, was thrown into motion.  The guard had managed to draw his pistol before he died and the force of his body hitting the floor caused the weapon to slide from his grasp.  The teenager reached for the gun and found that the safety was already clicked off.  Micah turned back to the invading turians who had already started to exit the elevator and pulled a shaking Grace behind him before he opened fire of the terrorists. 

 

Firing a gun for the first time is always difficult.  There’s the unexpected heaviness of the foreign device and the awkward curling of his finger around the trigger.  It was a bit a harder to pull the trigger than it seemed like it should be.  The resistance against Micah’s index finger felt like a small voice screaming in his head, “Are you sure?  Are you sure?  Are you sure?”  Then there was the actual aiming of the weapon towards a person, because, even though these individuals were attacking them, they were still living, breathing people.  If he committed to this action, then he would be the cause of their death. 

 

The quivering small girl behind him forced Micah to mute the small ethical voice of his conscience.  He had to protect her.  So he aimed the heavy weapon at the turian and fired.  The recoil was a sharp jerk and he almost dropped the gun on instinct.  His shot had gone wide and he missed the turian he was aiming at, but he somehow had managed to hit a different hostile.  Buoyed by some kind of success and sickened by the thought of injuring a person, Micah continued his assault of the turians.

 

Grace was a coward and she knew it.  She was quietly watching Micah and Dr. Sanders exchange fire with the turians and she was doing exactly nothing to help.  It wasn’t like she wasn’t trying to help, but every time she reached out and attempted to start the rapid oxidation process or place a shroud on one of the turians she would hear the panicked thoughts of the previous person she had killed.  Grace let the fear and guilt ride through her emotions and she was paralyzed.  So she stood behind Micah and listened to the retort of the pistol as he unloaded the only clip that he had. 

 

Micah gave the pistol a couple dry pulls of the trigger, before he realized that the clip was empty.  Everything was happening so fast.  He thought he may have killed one of the seven turians, but he really wasn’t sure if he had done that or Dr. Sanders had.  One of the turians turned in his direction and started to fire at him.  Micah didn’t know what to do, so he turned around and threw himself on top of Grace.  If he couldn’t help her offensively, at least he could use his own body defensively.  A sharp bolt of searing heat pierced his side and Micah couldn’t help but cry out in pain.  Suddenly there were people standing near him and sharp retorts of rifle fire were sounding above him. 

 

At first Micah thought that he was losing consciousness, as the sounds and pain faded away, but he was still able to think and his mind was still aware.  He panicked at the odd sensation and tried to break through the haze that seemed to cloud his mind.  Micah had a small thought that this might be Grace’s work, but he pushed that idea down as it didn’t really make sense.  Something seemed to reach down in his mind and pull that thought back up to the surface.  It was odd, but as that idea came to the forefront of his mind, he found that he believed it.  This was definitely Grace, but why was she doing this?

_Is it because I’m dying?_

_Is she going to kill me, like she did to the turian?_

_Is she trying to stop me from feeling pain?_

 

The medley of thoughts was sifted through and either they were pushed down or they were raised to the surface.  Micah should have felt violated at the interference in his mind, but the gentleness of Grace prevented him from panicking.  She didn’t communicate directly with him, but he slowly became aware that she was doing this to prevent him from feeling the pain in his side.  It was pleasant to be alone with only another person and his own thoughts. 

 

Slowly the fog was lifted and Micah became aware of the searing pain in his side, but now his shirt had been removed and his wound was wrapped tightly in plastic and gauze.  Grace sat by his side and the girl looked extremely nervous. 

 

“I’m ok.”  Micah winced as the words seemed to pull at the wound.

 

“I’m sorry about … well you know.  But I was scared when you got shot and you were in so much pain.”  Grace whispered beside him.

 

Micah managed a smile and took hold of Grace’s hand.  It felt like the right thing to do, but when his much larger fingers intertwined with Grace’s delicate ones his heart jumped in his chest.  Micah had obviously known Grace was a girl, but he had never realized that she was also a very pretty one.  He had always thought of her as a little kid, because she was so tiny and, well because Kast was her roommate.  Now though he looked at her bright green eyes, partially hidden by the wavy auburn hair, and he realized that Grace was a very pretty girl. 

 

Grace’s pale face blossomed with a deep red and she retracted her hand from Micah’s.  When he realized that she probably heard him think those things about her, his face matched her own.

 

He cleared his throat.  “Well, um, thank you for what you did.”

 

A small smile grew on Grace’s face and she said.  “You’re welcome.”

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie grunted as she rolled into cover.  The assault was actually going quite well, but she was getting a little too bold and had ventured further than she probably should have towards the turians. 

 

“What the hell was that, Charlie?”  Garrus asked through her earpiece. 

 

“Uh, strategy?”  She asked as she reloaded her weapon and waited for her shields to recharge.

 

“Oh, I must have missed the day in basic when they discussed the ‘how to get yourself killed’ strategy.”

 

“Good thing you caught the following day of ‘how to be a condescending asshole’.”

 

Charlie bolted over the poor excuse for cover and slammed the turian, who had been using the other side of the short wall, into a railing.  She then pulled her shotgun up into chest and fired.  The bright blue spray hadn’t even settled before she ducked behind another small bench in the bleachers.

 

“One more for me.  Did you also miss ‘how to actually hit your targets’, Garrus?”  Charlie taunted.

 

The lack of retort concerned Charlie and she looked back to find her sniper companion.  Three turians had managed to get past her and had Garrus pinned down in cover. 

 

“Shit, coming.”  She called before Charlie raced up the steps.  Weapon’s fire immediately followed her dash and Charlie sent a silent prayer that she could make it there in time. 

 

Crowd control was not one of Charlie’s strengths.  One-on-one she could handle most situations, but give her multiple targets and it was a different story.  Charlie bolted up the stairs and boldly charged into the midst of the three turians.  There was barely a pause before she detonated her tech armor and sent the terrorists stumbling back.  With less than a quarter of normal shield strength, Charlie grabbed the closest target and sent her remaining shotgun charge into his middle.  When she spun back to face the other men, she had already dropped the now useless shotgun and pulled her pistol.  The second turian was starting to regain his balance and Charlie threw her shoulder into his chest and emptied her pistol into him.  The pistol took a little longer to get through his battered shields.  Garrus seemed to have the third turian taken care of as he struggled with the attacking man.  Charlie was already in attacking mode though so she gripped the back of the terrorist’s armor, drew her knife, and slammed it into the side of his neck.  When she was finished with that, Garrus grabbed her around the middle and threw her back behind cover, before joining her.

 

“What was that?  I had him.”  Garrus growled as he checked the surroundings.

 

Charlie pulled herself off the ground with a huff at the undignified position he had dropped her in.  “Oh I’m sorry.  Next time I almost kill myself trying to save your scaly ass, I’ll remember that you can handle everything yourself.”

 

She scanned the room and counted the remaining hostiles as she spoke.  “I’ve got eight more terrorists in the room.”

 

“Let me know when your shields are back up and we’ll make a run on them.”  Garrus calmly responded while lining up a shot.  “And I wouldn’t have had five men on me, if someone hadn’t decided to leave half of my position open to attack, kill-stealer.”

 

Charlie’s eyes darted around the area and counted the bodies.  She had only seen three, but there were definitely five bodies on the ground.  “You’re just jealous, because I’m up by four.”

 

The rifle rang out two rapid shots and Garrus leaned back into cover with a smug smirk.  “You mean you’re up by three.”

 

“Smug bastard.”

 

“Whiny bitch.”

 

There was a moment of glaring between the two of them, before they both snorted and chuckled.  Charlie ducked out to pick up her discarded weapons and they quickly and efficiently finished off the terrorists.

 

* * *

 

 

The turians’ ship was smaller than Grace thought it should be.  She wasn’t an expert on spaceship design, but Dr. Sanders had definitely said that there were over a hundred turians on board and this ship just did not seem large enough to hold them all. 

_Maybe there is another level?_

 

A groan from Micah pulled Grace back to reality and away from the safe mundane thoughts of interior design.  Grace and Micah had dutifully followed the small troop of men and Dr. Sanders to the airlock and had waited patiently like so much luggage as the armed men commandeered the ship.  Grace really did not want to focus on what was happening in the argument between Dr. Sanders and the men.  She just wanted to go back to being a kid that was left out of the loop and let the adults make all of the decisions.  Everything usually worked out alright that way, right?

_What about when crazy Bill pulled the gun on Char?_

_Or when the turian was going to kill Micah?_

_Or when you didn’t complain about your implant and it almost killed you?_

 

Grace waved a hand through the air, as if to push away the unwelcome thoughts.  She was only a kid and nothing she had to say would help the adults. 

 

She felt the pair before Grace actually saw them.  Char and Garrus swept into the room and Grace noticed that the men snapped to attention as if an invisible hand pulled tightly on strings attached to the men’s spines.  Grace was fairly positive that the men were not even aware of the action. 

 

Char looked rough.  She always looked a little haggard, but between the charred remnants of armor and the dried blue streaks of turian blood; Char looked terrifying.  Garrus looked mostly the same as he always did, but that brought its own sense of command and certainty.  Where Char appeared to have survived a savage fire and lived to rip the face off of her combatant; Garrus had the cool crisp appearance of someone who had clearly been through the same experience, but hadn’t even scuffed his boots.  The contrast between them was awe-inspiring for anyone else, but to Grace she had to force herself not to bounce to her feet and hug the two of them in relief.  Now was not the time. 

 

“You two.”  Char barked at the men.  “Get out there and help move the children in here.  We need to move quickly.”

 

After the men rushed out of the ship, Char mumbled something under her breath and flicked off her omni-glasses. 

 

“I was trying to explain that I left two of the children in a maintenance shaft and someone needs to retrieve them.”  Dr. Sanders huffed at Char.  Frustration poured from that woman as Char raised her tired eyes to acknowledge her. 

 

“I know.  I got the message, but I found Kastanie in the gymnasium with the others.  So I guess the turians found them.”

 

“What about Sebastian?”

 

Char let out a violent sigh and leaned against the wall.  “I have no idea who that is, but if they picked up Kastanie I’m sure they grabbed Sebastian.  Either way, I’m sorry.  We do not have the time to check.” 

 

The orange glow flickered to life over Char’s eyes briefly, before Char pulled the glasses off of her face and shoved them into one of the suits pockets.  “I said, ‘Not right now.’  I know that we need to hurry, Ada.”

 

Garrus raised an eyeplate at Char who threw her arms up in the air dramatically. 

 

“In approximately eight minutes Jon Grissom Academy with break atmosphere over the planet Elysium.”  A tinny lifeless though distinctly feminine voice spoke over the intercom. 

 

Garrus sharply turned to Char for an explanation, but she was already shouting at the ceiling. 

 

“I am well aware, Lovelace.  We are doing the best we can.”  A frustrated growl slipped through her lips at the disembodied tones.

 

“The resulting crash will be catastrophic for the populace of Okeanos.”  The voice continued without an apparent care for the interruption.  “An intact station will decimate the metropolis and fallout from the element zero core reaction will have negative consequences for the area for decades.  Current projections are two million one hundred and forty-three thousand…”

 

“Stop!  I don’t have any other options, Ada.”   Charlie yelled at the disembodied voice.

 

Garrus placed a tentative hand on Char’s shoulder and the motion seemed to calm her.  A young man burst onto the bridge and reported.  “All staff and students secure, sir.”

 

Garrus moved to the control panel to begin launch protocols.  Grace’s mind raced.  Why was Ada desperately trying to gain Char’s attention?  She had lived with the VI for years and it had never even spoke to her.  Why now? 

 

“Ada?”  Grace heard her mutinous voice waver as she posed the question.  “Do you have a better option than leaving?”

 

“Grace Wallis, if the station was not intact when it struck the atmosphere, then the damage to the surface could be minimized.”  There was no emotion in the computerized tones, but Grace could imagine the relief.

 

“She means that we should detonate the eezo core?”  Dr. Sanders spoke in a hushed tone.  The horror on her face spoke volumes. 

 

“That could destabilize the atmosphere.”  Garrus’ tone hummed with uncertainty. 

 

“Incorrect.”  The voice chided.  “If detonated during the correct interval the atmosphere will not be affected by the radiation.  However the element zero fallout is unavoidable at the present time.”

 

Char’s face was grim, but her eyes darted across the back of the orange glow from her glasses she had reattached. 

 

“Garrus are we free from the station?”

 

“Charlie, you can’t do this.  You cannot trust that the computer has worked out all of the numbers.  If she is wrong … the result is catastrophic.”

 

“Are we free?”  Char asked again in that hard voice that made Grace’s arms itch.

 

“Charlotte.”  Garrus began again.

 

“The turian vessel has unlatched the docking clamps and is now free from the station.”  The mechanical voice rang out.

 

Char nodded her head as she spoke in the cold clear voice.  “Do it.  Detonate the eezo core.”

 

“Son of a bitch.”  Garrus swore as his talons danced across the pilot’s screen in an attempt to move the ship safely away. 

 

Grace was still watching Garrus and praying to Char’s God that they could make it to a safe distance in time when she felt the warm hand clutch her own. 

 

“Grace.”  Char said in the most serious voice the teenager had ever heard the woman use.  “I need you to look at me and understand my plan.  This is important.”

 

Grace blinked twice at her guardian before understanding the statement and opening her mind to Char’s chaotic thoughts.  What she found was confusing and frightened her. 

 

“I can’t do that.”  Grace whispered back.  “I can’t lie like that.  The Alliance is going to punish you.”

 

A humorless grin pulled the side of Char’s mouth up.  “I know they will, but you have to lie.  They’ll believe you.  Trust me.” 

 

The woman planted a rough kiss to her forehead and rose to stand behind Garrus.  Char’s hand fiddled with a pouch behind her back as she appeared to be closely observing the turian’s motions. 

 

“You have something to say, Charlie?”  The unamused turian growled. 

 

Char pointed at a spot on the screen on the far left.  “Is that supposed to be blinking?”

 

“What?”  Garrus asked as he swiveled his head to examine what the woman was talking about.  In a swift motion, Char drove a syringe into the side of his exposed neck.  Garrus couldn’t form any subsequent words as his eyes rolled back and he stared at his former partner in betrayal.


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone who is reading this and anyone who has left the lovely comments. You are undoubtedly the loveliest people I know. Alright about the contents of this chapter, I hope that they are clear enough. I obviously do not hold a law degree and thus everything that I know about it comes from either my hours of research or (please don't judge me, I'm just being honest with you) Law and Order reruns. Enjoy.

The next few hours were an exercise in patience for Charlie.  She had assumed that she would be yelled at by varying officials in the Alliance command, but that didn’t really happen.  Instead none of them quite knew what to do with the detective and she was shuffled from small room to smaller room as they figured it out.  Garrus concerned her.  When the turian ship set down on Elysium, he was still unconscious and Charlie was fairly certain that she had given him enough sedative to keep him out for a few more hours.  She hoped it would be long enough for the Hierarchy to cart him away before he awoke.  The story that she had meticulously spread with Ada and Grace should be enough to silence him from calling it a fabrication.  Although he was incredibly stubborn.

 

Another sigh escaped her as she fiddled with the seat cushion.  Charlie felt naked in the brightly lit room.  She had been given a grey shirt and pants and had been stripped of all of her tech.  Of course, she knew this was going to happen, but it still made her feel small and powerless.  If everything went according to plan then Grace had successfully smuggled Ada out of the turian vessel.  However, when had anything gone according to plan?  Especially today.  Not that she had really formed that detailed of a plan for the rescue of the students, but Charlie was fairly certain that detonating the eezo core directly above Elysium had never been part of the plan.

 

The hinge creaked as the door opened and a uniformed man stepped briskly into the small room.  Charlie did not know a lot about Alliance rankings, but the noticeable lack of bars on his chest meant he was merely an escort.  Charlie didn’t move from her seat, though she fairly certain it was polite to rise when an officer stepped into a room.  She was not Alliance and she did not need to recognize them.

 

“You are being transferred to a ship, ma’am.  If you would come with me.”  The young redhead spoke the words in a commanding tone, but didn’t quite have the imposing figure to register him as any threat to Charlie.  A half-cocked plan formed in her head about subduing the man and stripping him of his weapon.  However, she mutely cut off the idea and labeled it as ludicrous.  Charlie rebuilt the mental armor and tried to convince herself that she was going to serve her time in jail.  Thankfully the Alliance did not have a death penalty; so, at least, she would get to live to ripe old age decorating a jail cell.

 

With the grim picture firmly painted in her mind, Charlie followed the young officer out of the room and down a long hallway.  Her hands were placed cuffs, but they were fashioned together in front of her so they were not uncomfortable.  The faces of the men and women that the odd pair passed in the hall confused Charlie.  She couldn’t read any anger there, but there was an emotion written across many of their faces.  Awe?  Fear?  A mixture of the two?  Charlie was not sure what it was.  She mentally kicked herself.  So much time around aliens had dulled her senses to the simple task of reading her own race’s emotions.  Pathetic and little sad.

 

A man was standing in the elevator when they reached the end of the hall. 

 

“I’ll take her from here, son.”  The deep voice of Captain Anderson spoke to the young officer.

 

There was only the slightest hesitation in the set of the officer’s shoulders before he led Charlie into the elevator, saluted the Captain, and turned to walk back down the hall.  The door slid shut on Anderson and Charlie and the former immediately began to speak.

 

“So, you orchestrated this all on your own without anybody’s assistance?”  He said with a raised eyebrow.

 

Charlie shifted her feet before responding.  “It does appear that way.”

 

“I suppose it’s a good thing that Vakarian was already on board the Academy when the terrorists took over.”

 

Charlie’s mouth involuntarily twitched.  “I suppose it does appear that way.  I was certainly surprised.”

 

“So that turian I saw you with earlier was …”

 

The question hung for a brief moment before Charlie turned and looked the Captain square in the face and responded.  “I have no idea what you are referring to.”

 

A smile cracked on his face.  “Damn, you _are_ a bad liar.”

 

“Well I’m a very good programmer and unless you want a matching pair of bracelets I’m sure you won’t mention that incident to anyone.”

 

Anderson chuckled and stretched a hand across to Charlie.  “The Alliance and Elysium owe you a debt.  Thank you.”

 

She smiled in spite of the awkward motion of shaking hands while handcuffed.  “Well if this is how heroes are treated.”  She remarked with a glance at her wrists.

 

“You put yourself in this position.  You probably could have gotten yourself out of it with Vakarian.”

 

Charlie sighed and leaned against the wall once more.  “I know, but I knew that the Alliance needed shoulders to rest the blame on and, I don’t know, I just decided that it was going to be me.”

 

“You know my hands are tied in this mess.  I wish I could something more, but …” he trailed off when he noticed Charlie shaking her head.

 

“I would rather not make a big fuss over this.  I know I’m probably going to lose my job and sit in the same cell for the next forty years, if I’m lucky.  I know that you can’t do anything and I’d rather have as few people risking their neck for me as possible.   This ship is sinking and I’d like to go down alone.  Did Vakarian make it out?”  She asked suddenly concerned.

 

“He is in the custody of the Hierarchy officials now.  I am not privy to his current condition.”

 

“Good. Where am I headed now?”

 

Anderson huffed and scowled at the side of the elevator clearly angry at some previous conversation.  “You are being transported to Earth.”

 

Charlie opened her mouth and then shut it with a click.  She hadn’t been expecting this.  At least, not this quickly.  “But I haven’t been debriefed.”

 

“I am well aware.  However, this thing is quickly spiraling out of control.  No one is quite sure what to do with you.  The Alliance Navy wants you to stand trial for destruction of military property.  The government wants you to stand trial for … well the same reasons, but it seems the government is winning out.  Of course the Council is also screaming for your neck.  We will have to see how it all plays out.”

 

Charlie shrugged, once again resigned to her fate.  The bell quietly toned and the doors slid open.  Charlie let Anderson lead her through the complex as she marveled about the major details that had changed in this future she now lived in and the little things that have not.  Elevators, for instance, they haven’t changed all that much in the many, many years that have passed since her time.  “Her time”  That was a phrase that hadn’t crossed Charlie’s mind in a long while.  Charlie silently wondered at how comfortable she now felt in the year 2177.  She had been here eight years and it might have been a lifetime.  In that time she had gone through training, became a cop, became a detective, raised a kid, and, somehow in the midst of all of that jumble, kept her identity her own. 

 

Charlie watched the walls and the doors as they passed through the building.  It was downright impressive that she hadn’t royally screwed everything up until now.  Especially considering who she was and how positively fantastic she was a screwing everything up. 

 

* * *

 

**June 2177**

Frustration did not begin to cover the emotion Charlie was experiencing.  She was not positive how long she had been kept in the small room, but it was, at least, a week.  That was not including the time she spent in an eerily similar room on the ship to Earth.  Entire days would pass when no one would speak to her.  She had no idea what was happening outside the walls, but apparently it was taking an incredibly long time.  The worst part of it all was her lawyer or rather the quiet man who came to visit her once and did not want to ask her any important questions.  He had only asked her to confirm her identity and some non-pertinent questions.  He did not even ask what transpired on the station or answer any of her questions.  Charlie had considered throttling the man, but decided that would not look well next to the long list of charges against her.  Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t even remember him telling her his name.  He simply introduced himself as her attorney. 

 

No one had de-briefed her.  No one.  It was so frustratingly confusing.  Why did no one seem to care that the Shadow Broker had orchestrated the entire affair.  Charlie had resigned herself to her fate, but that did not mean that she didn’t have some valuable information to share.  Politics.  Bureaucracy and politics.  Three things that had not changed over the years: elevators, bureaucracy, and politics.  If they would just allow her to do something, anything really, Charlie would not feel so damn lonely and anxious. 

 

The door opened to her small cell and the same Private that had been tasked with bringing her meals stepped in with the same tray.  He never said a word to Charlie and she had stopped trying to talk to him the first day.

 

“Wait.”  Charlie said suddenly and without much hope for a response.

 

Surprisingly the man stopped and looked at her. 

 

“I know that I’m a prisoner, but … uh … could I have an hour in a gym?  I’m going mad in here and an hour working out sounds blissful.”  The words haltingly stumbled out of her mouth.  It was amazing that just a week without conversation had turned her lips into dried pieces of unworkable clay.

 

The Private stared at her for a while and Charlie gave up hope for any response.  When he opened his mouth and a thick Slavic accent rolled out the words “I will see what I can do.”  Charlie honestly thought about kissing the man.  She hadn’t heard such a beautiful phrase in a long time.  Instead of remembering to respond with a thank you, she just beamed at the young man. 

 

Charlie did not know how long it had been when the Private returned for her.  The cell door creaked its beautiful song of visitors and he appeared in the doorway with a jerk of his head.  She almost fell over herself with the prospect of leaving the claustrophobic room. 

 

When Charlie was first brought to the complex it had been at night and she was not exactly given a tour of the facilities.   She wasn’t even positive where she was.  Being told you’re on Earth and being able to look up at the blue sky and confirm that fact on your own are two entirely different things.  Charlie was under the impression that she was in some kind of prison, but now that she was walking around the building with Private it was clear that this was instead some type of military building.  They passed a multitude of soldiers who all gave her a wide berth and stared at her with wide eyes.  Again it was odd that she couldn’t place the emotion on their faces. 

 

All of the anxiety melted away when she stepped into the large empty gym.  Her escort parked himself near the door and she could feel his eyes on her back as she meandered through the rows of assorted devices.  It was strange to be back in a gym that catered only to humans.  It felt wrong, but Charlie wasn’t about to press her luck and she soon found herself on the treadmill.  Running was amazing.  Honestly, movement was amazing.  Just the hint of freedom that Charlie so desperately craved.

 

The sweat felt cleansing.  Like the whimpering anxiety ridden girl she had been for the past week was washed away and the old confident to a fault Charlie was awoken.  The workout didn’t last nearly long enough before the Private, who was kind enough to spot her, wordlessly motioned for the door.  Mimicking his silence, she nodded and wiped her sweaty face on her shirt.  Charlie was officially a wreck and in need of a shower, but she felt amazing. 

 

The trip back to her cell was too short.  A woman that Charlie thought she might recognize was pacing in front of the door when Charlie and the Private walked up.

 

When the woman noticed Charlie she threw her hands halfway up in exasperation and stomped over to the pair.  “There you are Detective Nacht.”  Ambassador Goyle stated.  “Where have you been?”

 

Charlie opened her mouth to respond, but Goyle cut her off.  “Doesn’t matter.  We are late and we need to leave now.”

 

Ambassador Goyle turned on her heel and marched off in the opposite direction leaving a confused Charlie to stare after her.  The Private shared Charlie look of consternation before he waved his arm in front of himself, in an exaggerated “after you” motion.

 

Ten minutes of quietly following the surprisingly fleet-footed Goyle brought them to another room.  Although this was a room that Charlie understood.  A small white room with a rectangular table, two chairs situated across from each other, and an obvious camera mounted in the corner.  An interrogation room. 

_Finally, someone is going to debrief me._

 

Goyle left the Private in the hall and briskly waved her omni-tool at the camera.  Before stabbing a finger at one of the chairs and barking, “Sit”.

 

Charlie quickly obeyed and looked expectantly at the ambassador who had positioned herself opposite Charlie and was rummaging through her small bag.  Apparently successful in her search the woman slid a thin datapad across the table to Charlie. 

 

Charlie skimmed the contents, but it was medical jargon that she didn’t understand with zero context.  “What is this?”  Charlie baldly asked with a slight wave of her hand.

 

“This is what you are going to give the committee when they call you into the courtroom.”  Goyle stole a glance at the orange glow wrapped about her wrist and stated.  “In ten minutes.”

 

“I’m going to be in court … in ten minutes?”  Charlie asked bewildered at the notion of showing up dressed in the loose attire and still sweaty.

 

Goyle huffed impatiently.  “Yes.”

 

Charlie blinked while trying to grasp the idea.  “Okay, what is on this datapad?”

 

“Proof of citizenship or rather it is proof of your decided lack of citizenship.”  Goyle announced with a gleam of pride in her eyes.

 

“What am I not a citizen of?”  Charlie asked completely lost.

 

“Earth.”  Pride and triumph dripped from the small word the ambassador spoke.

 

Charlie’s mind was sent reeling.  This was not something she had planned on.  How could that possibly even be true.  All humans were citizens of Earth.  “How is this possible?  Did I turn into a salarian when I wasn’t paying attention?”

 

Goyle positively beamed at her.  “I have no idea how it is possible.  Absolutely no idea.  However, the proof of it is resting in your hands.  About sixty years ago, a massive DNA mapping project was launched.  The idea was to get a record of all living humans DNA.  This was done for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which was an attempt to stymie human cloning projects.  Anyways, when Earth became a Council species we were asked to publicly announce all of the humans as citizens of Earth and to put on file a record of their DNA.  Now, of course, not every human has an updated file, but it is always possible to find the parents in the database.  Now you, my dear, are not in the database.  We can’t even find your parents.  This means that you are not recognized as a citizen of Earth and thus cannot be tried for any crimes.”  Goyle finished off the explanation the way she had started it, with a grin of pure pride. 

 

“But … what does that mean for everything else?  I have a legally adopted daughter and a job on the Citadel.”  Charlie’s brain raced to keep up with the multitude of implications.

 

“Well technically you are a member of Citadel space, but not any specific part of space.  It’s all very confusing, but the only governing body that has any legal hold on you is the Citadel Council.”

 

“Damn it all, I’m human.”

 

Goyle waved her hand dismissively and continued.  “Yes, very convincing.  Now here’s how it’s going to play out when you walk in.”

 

* * *

 

 

The room was large and imposing.  A long row of men and women sat facing Charlie in a large elevated semi-circle.  The room was full of noisy people yelling things at her or about her, but Charlie drowned them all out and focused on the silent people sitting above her.  An older man sitting in the center of the dais called for order in the room and her case was announced.  How many times had she sat in similar rooms?  More times then she could properly recall, but Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht had never sat on this side of the aisle before. 

 

The quiet and possibly incompetent lawyer sat next to Charlie and refused to acknowledge her presence.  Silence swept the courtroom as the judge in the center acknowledged the defense.  Before her lawyer could utter a word, Charlie stood up and spoke in the steadiest cop voice she possessed.

 

“Your honor, I would like to call for a mistrial.”

 

Noise was once again unleashed upon the courtroom and threatened to drown the tall woman who was feeling smallest she had ever felt in her life.  Eventually the judge quieted everyone down and calmly asked Charlie.  “On what grounds, Ms. Nacht?”

 

“If I may approach the bench, your honor?”

 

The judge nodded solemnly to her and the prosecuting attorney joined her at the foot of the large elevated desk. 

 

“I have some new evidence I would like to submit.”  Charlie’s voice gave out on her halfway through the sentence, but she caught herself and finished strong.

 

“Ms. Nacht you cannot call for a mistrial like this.”  The prosecuting attorney informed her without any heat in his voice, as if speaking to a small child.

 

Charlie passed him a nervous look, but was gratified when the judge took the datapad she offered him.  After a few minutes of reading the information that laid within the small device the judge passed a tired hand over his eyes and gave the pad to the woman seated to the right of him.  Eventually the entire line of judges had a chance to read the information and they all stared at her like she would suddenly turn blue and her hair would turn out to be tentacles. 

 

“This is impossible.”  A particularly enraged judge in an Alliance uniform proclaimed at the end of the row.

 

“Agreed.”  The elderly man in the center said.  “Would you care to explain yourself, Ms. Nacht?”

 

Charlie bit her tongue and said the words that Goyle had left her with.  “With all due respect, your honor, I do not have to explain myself as this courtroom is unfit to sentence me.  I have been kept for the past week unlawfully confined.”

 

“She is clearly a human.”  The Alliance officer continued to protest.  “It is an impossibility she is not a citizen.”

 

“Clearly not as impossible as we once thought.”  An elderly woman beside the center judge spoke up, with a quick wink to Charlie. 

 

That small positive gesture was when Charlie first actually looked about the room.  Aside from the Alliance official and the center judge all seven of the judges offered her reassuring smiles and kind eyes.  Charlie stole a tentative glance behind her at the crowd observing the courtroom and noticed that the vast majority were plainly grinning at her and a few gave small waves as her eyes passed over them.  This was when the Charlie realized that she was not unloved in the room.  Anderson was correct in his prophetic statement in the elevator.  She was seen as a hero.  The realization slapped her in the face and seemed to awaken something in her.  Aside from the Alliance Navy, Earth was on her side.  Charlie had been under the assumption that she was going to spend the rest of her days in a prison cell, but it was quite possible that she would make it out of here.

 

“Your honor, if I might add something to this discussion?”  A quiet, calm voice spoke behind her.  Charlie turned quickly and saw her pale and balding lawyer standing behind her. 

 

The judge beckoned the man to continue.  “Thank you.  As I’m sure you are all aware, the Council required Earth to name all humans as citizens for cases just like this.  If the Council were to discover that we let a human slip under the radar … this could have far-reaching repercussions in our tentative place in the galaxy.”

 

A few of the judges stole glances at each other, as the truth of the statement settled around them.

 

“This is ridiculous!”  The uniformed judge proclaimed, loudly enough the audience could hear.  “This woman.  This _human_ woman interfered with a hostage situation, impersonated a Council Spectre, and single-handedly blew up a school.  She cannot be allowed to walk free.”

 

Charlie blinked at the words “single handedly”, but wisely chose to remain quiet.

 

“That is a very good point, your honor.”  Her lawyer continued in his calm reasonable tone.   “I believe the Council wishes to charge her with impersonating a Spectre.  Even if a verdict cannot be reached here, and I do not believe that it will be with this new evidence, the Council will surely punish her severely for the crime of impersonating a Spectre.”

 

“Thank you for your input.  I believe we will have to discuss this further and take a short recess.”  The center judge spoke suddenly and with authority.

 

A gentle clearing of a throat sounded behind Charlie. “Actually, your honor, Detective Nacht’s citizenship is not in question.  That, if I am reading this correctly, is a fact.  Detective Nacht has no ties or allegiance to any civilization, save one.  That would be the Citadel Council.  This case is unlawful by the very nature of attempting to prosecute a non-native visitor.  Thus the only possible recourse for a future prosecution would be to appeal to the Council for the right of prosecution.  However, I would like to point out that the proceedings from this trial will have to be unsealed for any future trials of Ms. Nacht which undoubtedly would draw a considerable amount of tension and ire from the Council to humanity.”

 

Charlie watched the unassuming lawyer with a new respect.  The blatant threat was thinly veiled with a smile and a calm voice.  All of the judges stared at the small quiet man and then turned as one to the center judge.  Even the Alliance judge pinched bridge of his nose and hung his shoulders in defeat.

 

Charlie stood there under the grave scrutiny of the senior judge and was suddenly fully aware of how preposterous her appearance was.  She was certainly making a mockery of the court with her sweat-stained grey clothes and her limp loose curls.  With a heavy sigh the senior judge raised the wooden gavel and spoke.  “This court rules in favor of a mistrial in the case of the Alliance Navy versus Charlotte Nacht.”

 

One sharp knock of lacquered wood on wood and it was over.  The judges filed out and Charlie was once again drowned in the exuberant cries from the audience.  Her lawyer hooked an arm through hers and deftly guided them out of the large room.  Somewhere amidst the chaos a smaller feminine arm looped through her other side and tugged the two of them into a side room. 

 

“Goyle!”  Charlie exclaimed once the door was shut and she could see the woman.  “What exactly happened in there?  Am I going to be tried again?”

 

“I unfortunately lack the ability to peer into the future.  However, judging by the absolute uproar at your trial from multiple officials in the Alliance Navy and Alliance diplomats I highly doubt there will be enough friction for any case to make it to court.  The Alliance is mostly concerned with the turian terrorists and fending off the media.  Of course, they have offered up Captain Yelchik as a sacrifice for their ineptitude.  Now I have a few statements for you to sign, Nacht.  Then you are catching a Council Fleet ship back to the Citadel.”

 

“When you say I’m ‘catching a ship’, you mean I’m going back into custody?”  Charlie asked as the brief elation of winning the case wore off.

 

Goyle sharply nodded as she positioned several forms in front of Charlie.  “Oh yes, of course I do.  The Council is quite properly livid and I do not have a backdoor escape plan for you there.  This form is a statement stating that you are not aware of your lineage and request a form for full citizenship under the Alliance.  This form is the form that was requested in the previous form.  And this one is the actual Alliance citizenship form.  They have all been filled out according to the information that Citadel Security Services has on record for you and I’m absolutely sure that that is the correct information.  Aren’t you, Nacht?”  Goyle’s face was a painting of firmness and Charlie acquiesced immediately and signed the forms. 

 

“Excellent.  Now although that was a public case, you will say nothing about what transpired during it.  If asked about the mistrial you will respond that the case and verdict are sealed and you are not at liberty to discuss them.  Do you understand?”

 

“Yes, ma’am.”

 

“Well then I would like to be the first one to welcome you to being a citizen of Earth and I hope you very much enjoy all of the privileges of being human.”  Goyle finished with a smirk, before turning the quiet lawyer.

 

“Donnel.”

 

“Ambassador Goyle.”  The man spoke with a small nod towards the woman.

 

Charlie went to follow Goyle out into the hall, but was stopped by the delicate hand of Donnel.  “You have powerful friends.”  He spoke the words in grave and slightly sad tone.

 

“Thank you.”  Charlie responded confused.

 

“That was not a compliment.  Powerful friends make a habit of pulling people into rapidly worsening scenarios and then the friends will turn on you when you inevitably slip and fall.  Be careful, Nacht.  This was not a victory as I would see it.  You are more noticeable than ever and that is never a boon.” 

 

With that odd statement the quiet man slipped out of the door and disappeared into the crowd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the information about how they establish citizens of Earth is partially from the Mass Effect wiki and also comes from my own brain when I asked myself how they could possibly mark citizens that are born on backwater planets. The only thing I could come up with was there was a genetic marker and the rest followed from there


	34. Chapter 34

Nihlus Kryik was not having his best day.  Not that anyone who he passed in the hall would have been able to tell.  His long, confident, and easy stride took him quickly past the other species, but the slight nod of his head as acknowledgement vanquished any feelings they might be harboring of an affront.  It really was incredibly simple to put most species at ease. 

_So why was Nacht so bad at it?_

 

His throat pulled a quiet growl from his subvocals.  That woman would be the death of him.  When the Alliance had questioned him on the events at Elysium, Nihlus had artfully avoided all pertinent questions.  He wasn’t sure what his plan was, but he had hoped that Nacht’s trial on Earth would last slightly longer than it had.  Well that was not exactly true, he did have a plan.  Nihlus Kryik _always_ had a plan, but he wasn’t precisely sure that it was a good one.  It would definitely get Nacht out of the line of fire, but it would cause more scrutiny to be placed on him and he wasn’t sure he liked the trade off.

 

“Damn it, Nacht.”  He told the empty elevator.

 

The same reason that he found the human woman so intriguing was the exact same reason he was dreading the rest of the day.  Charlotte Nacht was impulsive, insane, loyal to absolute fault, and had a wickedly sharp tongue.  A different kind of growl from before attempted to flee his throat, but Nihlus quickly tamped that down.  That was not the message he wanted to be sending the Council today. 

 

Nihlus paused before the metallic door and briefly composed himself.  Not that his physical appearance changed, but inside his mind he rooted about for the breezy personality that both made him a terrible turian and an exceptional Spectre.  Mask securely in place he stepped through the opening doorway and dropped himself into the only available chair without preamble and stared at the room’s occupant with a carefully crafted smirk in place. 

 

“Nacht.”  He spoke the name with humor he didn’t feel.  “You look awful.”

 

The truth was that she didn’t look awful, which would have been fairly normal for Nacht’s average appearance, she looked terrible.  Nacht usually had a subconscious way of gathering all of her imperfections to her and forcing the viewer to accept them.  She would wrap herself up in her anger, scars, and calluses; and dare the viewer to think of her as flawed.  This bald display of faults was one of the reasons that Nihlus liked her.  It was honest and proud and fearless.  However, this pretender sitting across from him right now was not Nacht.  This woman was afraid and broken.  This was what he had been dreading and he steeled himself to the task of exorcizing the ghost from Nacht.

 

Her response to his statement was simple raise of her eyebrows.

 

“What?  No cutting remark for old times?”  Nihlus goaded her.  “Here.”  He stated as he tossed a pack of Ignis on the table.  “I believe that I promised to bring you cigarettes.”

 

Nacht stared at the unopened pack of Ignis as if it were a snake.  Eventually she resigned herself to her fate and slowly began the process of unwrapping the gift.

 

“Why are you here?”  Nacht asked in a dull tone that almost made Nihlus wince.

 

“I believe I promised to visit you in prison and bring you smokes.  As a turian of my word, I am completing the social obligation.”  He made a show of glancing about the room before dryly adding.  “Although this room is a tad small for a conjugal visit.”

 

Nihlus almost failed to notice the small smirk that drew Nacht’s lip before it slipped away.  That was a good sign.

 

“Do you have any fire or am I supposed to use these as currency?”  Nacht asked him while slowly walking the blue cylinder across the back of her hand.

 

Nihlus tossed a small metallic box onto the table with a ringing thud.  “I see the media has overestimated your ability to breathe fire.”

 

Nacht did not acknowledge the statement and instead focused on the inhaling deep draws of the heady smoke.  Nihlus wanted to know what had first spurred a human to begin smoking a turian cigarette.  It confused his senses in a delightful way.  He had always preferred the soft bodies of asari and humans to the more traditional hard curves and graceful lines of his kinswomen, but something had been missing in his previous lovers.  Conflict.  Nacht was a perfect blend of turian and human in spirit in his eyes, but when she smoked Ignis Nihlus could close his eyes and imagine her as a soft turian. 

 

When Nacht opened her eyes after reveling in the drug an ember of her old fire had resurfaced.  “Now why are you really here?  I seem to recall that we also agreed you would stay out of this mess.”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry.  Did you wish to stay in prison for the rest of your days or did you want me to rescue you?”

 

“I don’t want you to ‘rescue’ me.”

 

Nihlus leaned on the table and stared at her.  “Just like you didn’t want Goyle to rescue you on Earth?”

 

Nacht sighed and rubbed her eyes.  “Perhaps I should restate that.  I don’t want _you_ to rescue me.”

 

“Because I’m a Spectre?”

 

“… yes.”  Nihlus caught the ever so brief pause before her affirmation and filed that tidbit away for later rumination. 

 

“Well that just confirms my suspicions that you are crazy.”

 

“Careful Nihlus you are repeating yourself and I do believe that the general consensus already has doubts regarding my mental acuity.”  Nacht said with a dry smirk.

 

“Actually the general consensus has labeled you a hero and there is a not inconsiderable protest taking place on the lawn outside of the Presidium.”  Nihlus reveled in the disbelieving glare he received from the woman.  There was in fact a large crowd of Citadel citizens outside loudly protesting Nacht’s arrest and subsequent trial.  Of course there was, he had silently instigated it. 

 

When Nacht had told him of her fool plan to board the station and attempt a rescue, he had little doubt that she would succeed.  The woman was resourceful and rarely committed to half-measures.  So he dropped anonymous tips and leads to prominent news correspondents and laid a trail that he had hoped would lead to public support of her actions.  However, the gambit had worked a little too well.  The media had no problems with labeling Nacht a heroine and closely followed her blaze of glory.  It was one of the many reasons Nacht had been kept under firm “lock and key” and was not allowed the privilege of outside influence.

 

Nacht buried the bottom portion of her face with a scarred hand and turned her tired eyes on Nihlus.  “What do you want from me?”

 

“Admit that Spectres are necessary.”  Nihlus stated simply as he forced his right mandible to behave and not betray his amusement.

 

“No.”

 

“Without the help of a Spectre, you would not have succeeded in your attempt to board Grissom Academy.”

 

“I would have found another way and I don’t need rescuing.”  Heat had found its way back into Nacht’s voice.

 

“You actually do need rescuing and I highly doubt you could have breached the Alliance base security as easily as you did without me.  Don’t you have a daughter on the outside, Nacht?  Do you actually want to see her again?”

 

A red indignant flush settled on Nacht’s face and exposed neck.  “I will not lie to you and feed your exorbitant ego just to be set free.  This exact situation is why Spectres have too much power.  You should not be allowed to free a prisoner on a goddamn whim simply because you feel like it.”

 

Nacht’s hand slammed down on the desk between them and Nihlus saw that she was seconds away from striking him.  He wrapped a firm hand around her wrist and spoke in a low voice.  “Have you ever known me to openly abuse my power?”

 

She jerked her arm back, but not with enough force to free it.  “No, I haven’t.”

 

“I am very much aware of the power I wield and the power that other Spectres wield.  I am constantly watching for a slip up.  I am not perfect and I make mistakes, but I try.  You would not condemn us all to prevent a few bad Spectres would you?  I don’t see you holding your own C-Sec to the same standards.”

 

The red tint of her skin did not fade, but Nacht’s expression subtly softened around the edges.  “You’re right.  I don’t hold C-Sec to the same standards.  I am not admitting that I find your order necessary, but I’ll admit that few bad apples do not necessarily spoil the whole bunch.”

 

Nihlus raised an eyeplate at the colorful analogy.  “That’ll have to do then.  You might want to get ready your trial is coming up.”  With that final statement he gave a brief squeeze to Nacht’s wrist and left the room.  He felt gratified that he had breathed some life back into Nacht.

 

* * *

 

Nihlus Kryik was goddamn infuriating.  He swept into the room riled her up and then abruptly left under the pretense of freeing her without actually telling her anything.  Charlie let her mind wander through various torture ideas regarding the turian, but when her fantasies turned lewd she shook her head clear. 

 

He hadn’t been lying when Nihlus told her of the upcoming trial.  Half way through another Ignis, the guard opened the door and beckoned for her to follow.  Which was how she found her way navigating the odd indoor garden in the Council Chambers, dreading every footfall as that led her closer to the inevitable verdict.  She was guilty.  Charlie knew it.  There shouldn’t be any other conclusion to draw from her actions.  She had all but drawn a giant sign pointing to her and only her that read “Charlotte Nacht committed fraud and impersonated a Spectre.  Take her away.  Case closed.”

 

A sigh escaped her lips and she peered around the large hall.  So obsessed with her own thoughts, Nacht hadn’t noticed that there were quite a few people standing in the garden area.  Most of them were strangers to her, but she uncomfortably recognized a few faces as ambassadors that she had had … run-ins with in the past.  Standing near the back of the group was a turian face that made her heart momentarily take up residence in her throat.  The long sweeping blue line spoke the word “friend” in her mind before her eyes noticed the other details that labeled this turian as older than Garrus.  Antonius Vakarian stood watching her without any emotion fitted within his plates; however he was wearing full military dress with his many honors boldly displayed across the sash.

_So he is here in an official capacity.  That doesn’t mean he is here on my side._

_Does a rightfully convicted Spectre impersonator deserve to have anyone on her side?_

_No …_

_Did I hear a pause?_

_You know what?  You did hear a pause.  I did what I had to do to protect Grace and everyone else onboard that station.  It is highly likely, plausible even, that if I did not do what I am charged with, then everyone would have died.  Instead of this trial, I would be at a memorial service and funeral.  So fuck everyone here!  I am not ashamed of what was necessary and I would do it all over again._

_Finally.  It took you long enough to stop sulking._

 

The ascent up the stairs to the Council was excruciatingly slow.  Of course, once she saw the three grim faces that awaited her on the dais, Charlie had to will her cowardly legs to continue their steady march.  Standing on the glass platform over the Citadel gave the illusion the Council was comprised of angry gods who could send her crashing to the ground whenever they chose.  Or maybe they were a three-headed Roman Emperor, his hand hovering as he decides her fate while the rough sandal of a gladiator presses down on her neck.

 

Charlie filled herself with the fire that she was so well-known for and scoured the images clean.  She may not be in the right, but she had done the right thing.  With a passionate confidence, she marched to the end of the glass floor and stood glaring defiantly at her three judges.

 

“Detective Charlotte Nacht.”  The cool serene voice of Tevos rang through the room.  “I assume you know the charges we bring before you today?”

 

“Impersonating a Council Spectre, your grace.  I petition my plea of guilty.”  Charlie spoke the words loudly in her very best confident cop voice.  She knew the steps of this dance well from her years in C-Sec.

 

“If she is not going to disavow her actions, then this case will be concluded swiftly.”  The thin voice of Salern, the salarian councilor, said.

 

“Do you have anything to say on behalf of your actions?”  The deep subvocals of Sparatus rolled over her.

 

Yes, Charlie had plenty to say.  However before she could vocalize her defense, the sharp clicks of turian boots on glass sounded behind her. 

 

“Council members.”  Nihlus said as he took up a position leaning against the side of the low glass panel, the very picture of nonchalance.

 

“Spectre Kryik, I do not believe we were expecting you.”  The cool voice of Tevos sounded like a bell.

 

 “Really?  Well I decided to bring my report on the events of Elysium to the illustrious members of the Council, personally.”

 

“We requested that report two weeks ago, Spectre Kryik.”  Sparatus ground out the words with thinly veiled annoyance.

 

“Indeed, but I was also given orders to investigate the order of Facinus and I was never very good at multi-tasking.” Nihlus responded to the turian councilor with a sharp look.

 

“Where is this report, Spectre Kryik?”  Valern asked with a slight undertone of curiosity indicative of his species.

 

“I just filed it and I believe the Council now has access.  Oh, wait.”  Nihlus said blandly with a small flick of his omni-tool.  “Now it is filed.”

 

The councilors took a few moments to read the report and Charlie took the opportunity to glance at Nihlus.  However, despite their close proximity, he refused to meet her eyes.

 

“According to your report, Spectre, you _ordered_ Detective Nacht to board Jon Grissom Academy?”  Valern posed the query with a series of rapid blinks.

 

“Yes, Councilor.”

 

“You do not have the clearance or permission to ‘loan’ your Spectre authority to individuals.”  Tevos stated the first glimpse of passion visible beneath her cool asari mask.

 

“Madam Councilor, you will recall that I was sent to Illium to deal with some rather personal matters for the Council.  If I had been stationed on the Citadel, I would have been able to respond the situation directly.”  Nihlus spoke the words with a smile, but a knowing look passed between the asari and Spectre.

 

“Still a matter of life and death which, pardon the cliché, this clearly was; should not have been lightly handled by an individual without proper authority.”  Valern spoke the truth.

 

“I have the authority to command any Citadel employees, as I see fit.  Is this not true, Councilors?  I have even used this prerogative with Detective Nacht in the past.  She has clearly proven herself to be reliable.  I have scoured the Spectre guidelines and none of them state that the Spectre issuing the commands has to be present.  This was an unusual situation of galactic security and I used an unusual response to remedy it.  Is this not at the very core the meaning of my position and post?  Would you have preferred I sit back and watch the events play out from the sidelines?”

 

“Detective Nacht committed a crime against the Citadel.  We cannot risk others following in her footsteps and then falling back on powerful friends to protect them.  It sets a dangerous precedent.”

 

“Then change the laws after this trial is over.”  Nihlus coolly stated. 

 

Valern narrowed his intelligent large eyes at Nihlus.  Tevos and Sparatus shared a look of defeat as they silently conferred through a glance. 

 

“What about the humans?  Surely they will require retribution for Detective Nacht’s actions.”  Tevos spoke the words as if hoping that Nihlus had an answer for her.

 

He did.  “Detective Nacht has already faced judgment at the hands of her people.”

 

“And they do not require a harsh sentence?”  Sparatus asked.

 

A clear feminine sounded behind Charlie and she almost jumped in alarm.  “It is as Spectre Kryik says, humanity has judged her.”  The fierce old eyes of Ambassador Goyle appeared to hold no love for Charlie.

 

“If we are going to let her go, then we must address the issue of Detective Nacht keeping her rank with Citadel Security.”  Valern said.  This statement appeared to surprise Nihlus, however the rest of the Council and Charlie nodded their heads in agreement.

 

“Councilors, if I may speak?”  Charlie asked with more strength in her tone than she thought possible.

 

“You may.”

 

“I would ask that I be allowed to tender my resignation from Citadel Security Services.”

 

A sharp twitch from her right meant that this was a surprise to Nihlus.

 

“That will suffice.”  Valern nodded to her.

 

“Charlotte Elizabeth Nacht you are found ‘not guilty’ for the crime of illegally impersonating a Spectre and, in effect, committing sedition against the Citadel Council.  The terms of your sentence require you to step down from your position as Detective for Citadel Security Services.”  Tevos looked sharply to either side of her to the other Councilors before briskly rising and leaving the dais.

 

There was no sharp retort of lacquered wood, but the tone of dismissal rang just as loudly in Charlie’s ears.  Her legs threatened to give out on her as she walked out of the large room past the people watching her in the alcoves.  Too many eyes, too much attention.  The urge to run was just as strong as the urge to fall down and hide.  However, the thought of so many witnesses being present to her weakness spurred her legs to continue their confident stride.

 

The elevator welcomed her with open arms.  She didn’t know where it would take her, but the option to choose her destination instead of some uniformed guard deciding for her was a blissful alternative.  The gentle mindless ditty played in the open space and the doors almost shut before a taloned arm darted out and stopped it. 

 

Charlie should have expected the intrusion, but it irked that she couldn’t claim five minutes of time to compose herself.  The door obediently re-opened and the owner stepped in with a smug look drawn on his chocolate plates. 

 

“Spectre Kryik.”

 

“Nacht.”  He replied mimicking her solemn tone.

 

A quiet turian slipped into the elevator behind Nihlus before the door blessedly shut and the elevator smoothly started its descent.  The silent turian openly glared at Nihlus.

 

“General Vakarian, always a pleasure.”  Nihlus smoothly said while offering an arm clasp.

 

Although Antonius returned the gesture, he remained silently seething at the Spectre.  Charlie cursed her lack of omni-glasses as her natural senses were not picking up on the undertones of the confrontation. 

 

Nihlus, after the brief attempt at civility, effectively ignored the older turian.  “Well do I get a thank you, at least.”

 

“You could have warned me what you were about to say.”

 

“There is no fun in that.”  Nihlus said with a smirk.  “Also, I needed you to look surprised at my appearance.  I will accept thanks in the form of your turian chocolate spaetzle.”

 

Charlie opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off when Antonius broke off his glaring at Nihlus to ask her, “Was the report filed falsified?”

 

A spot between Charlie’s shoulders itched under the scrutiny the older Vakarian laid upon her.  “No, sir.  Well he never actually ‘ordered’ me to board the ship, but he did willingly offer his support and codes.”

 

“I didn’t have to order you.  You were going to do it anyways.”  Nihlus offered.

 

Ignoring Nihlus he asked again.  “So it was not a lie?  You did not just lie to the Council to avoid a fair sentence?”

 

Charlie was still in the process of struggling with that question on her own.  It was one of the many reasons she wanted to have a breath of privacy.  “It is not the entire truth; however it is not a lie, sir.”

 

Antonius seemed to accept this answer and resumed his glare at Nihlus. 

 

The elevator slowed to a stop and announced the level as the doors opened.  “Well this is my stop.  I’ll see you around, Nacht.”  Nihlus said as he turned to leave with a quick dip of his head towards Antonius.

 

“Thank you, Nihlus.”  Charlie said with full sincerity before the doors closed and she was alone with Garrus’ father.

 

A moment of silence passed between them before Charlie broke it.  “How is Garrus?”

 

Antonius lifted one eyeplate at the unceremonious question before responding.  “He was only briefly detained by the Alliance and Hierarchy.  The Alliance petitioned the Council for the right to prosecute him; however they did not have a leg to stand on so the petition was denied.”

 

Charlie nodded her head at the news.  “That’s good, but I meant how is he?  Is he … angry?”

 

Antonius shifted his weight and there was a hint of compassion before he regained his rigid pose.  “No.”

 

Charlie blinked and blurted out.  “Really?”

 

“You misunderstand me.  Angry does not properly cover the emotion he is experiencing.”

 

* * *

 

 

As much as Charlie preferred to be alone, she was incredibly grateful for Antonius’ presence.  Nihlus had not been exaggerating when he told her of the protest on the Presidium.  There was a mass of bodies, surprisingly largely alien, that had formed in front Citadel Tower.  Even with years of experience as a cop the pressing mass of flesh triggered a fight or flight instinct within Charlie.  However, Antonius expertly maneuvered around the crowd and gathered her into a waiting skycar.

 

The trip was silent between the turian and human.  Charlie was grateful for the calm even though the past two weeks had been mostly comprised of her being alone with her thoughts.  She needed to think of a plan of attack for dealing with Garrus.  Charlie had not allowed herself to conceive a future that did not involve spending, at least, the next twenty years behind bars.  She knew Garrus was going to be angry, but how pissed can a person be at prisoner behind an inch of glass?  Charlie’s brain however refused to be of any assistance at working out the puzzle of her relationship with her former partner.  So instead she ended up staring at the metal and porcelain door of her apartment with Antonius standing patiently beside her.

 

A brief flash of panic seized Charlie as she remembered the state of how she had left her quarters.  No one had ever accused her of being tidy, but the lack of a roommate had caused Charlie to relax her living conditions.  The panic didn’t last long, because the door suddenly opened to reveal a beaming Grace who promptly half-tackled Charlie with a hug. 

 

The small fourteen-year-old did not possess the strength to knock Charlie backwards, but the emotional force behind the embrace did.  Charlie found her legs threatening once again to fail her. 

 

“I missed you.”  Grace spoke the words into the rough synthetic material of Charlie’s plain grey shirt.

 

“Me too.  Are you okay?”  Charlie didn’t want to break the hold she had on the most important individual in her life, but the protective instincts kicked in and the woman quickly scanned Grace’s form for physical imperfections and her face for emotional ones.

 

“I’m fine.  I--”

 

Grace’s voice cut off when she saw that Charlie’s attention had been drawn elsewhere.  Garrus stood against the back wall of the living room.  His face was completely shut down.  There was not a hint of the rage that Charlie knew was barely concealed under the surface.  Every plate was tightly locked against his face, however his eyes betrayed his emotion as they fiercely pierced her.

 

“Garrus.”  Charlie tentatively said.

 

There was no reply save a slight tightening around his eyes.

 

Looking back down at the girl in front of her, Charlie spoke.  “I think I’m going to take a shower now and put on my own clothes.  Then we can talk, alright?”

 

The words were as much for Grace as they were for Garrus; however she felt the movement of a large turian behind her as she stepped down the hall and into her bedroom.  She drew in a bracing breath before turning around to address the imposing figure after the door had shut.

 

“Garrus, I--” Charlie began, but was cut off when he raised a single talon and tabbed in the privacy command on the comm. panel on the wall.  The noise cancellation device in place he turned back to her and she could see the twitch of a mandible as he visibly shook with rage.

 

“What the fuck was that, Charlie?”  She wasn’t sure if he shouted the accusation or if her ears had suddenly turned extra-sensitive.

 

“I was trying to--”

 

“No, you don’t get to talk right now.  You gave up that privilege when you betrayed my trust and drugged me.”  There was a definite grinding growl etched into his tone.  Charlie shut her mouth with a click and forced her eyes to watch him.  “I thought we were a team.  _I_ thought we were going to go down as a team.  _I_ thought that that was what we had agreed upon.  I thought we were _friends._ Why?  Why would you do that to me?”

 

Charlie waited for him to continue before she chanced opening her mouth to say … something.  She didn’t really have a proper answer for him.  Another raised talon from Garrus prevented her voice as he continued.

 

“I don’t need to hear you say the words, because I already know the old, tired rhetoric.  You thought you were protecting me.  You didn’t see why we both had to take the fall when magical Charlie could wave her tech wand and get me out of it.  Is that right?  Well fuck that.  That is not how friends, especially supposed best friends, are supposed to act.  There is no hierarchy among equals Charlie and your best friend should mean that you are equals.  And I know that you knew it was wrong.  You slimy pyjak, you could have voiced your plan at anytime, but no you kept silent because you knew how I would react.  Who the fuck do you think you are?  You know I woke up with a splitting headache and had no idea what was going on or where I was.  I thought … I thought that there had been a problem with avoiding the explosion of the station.  I mean I woke up in a med-bay, Charlie.”  Garrus voice faltered and his eyes slid off of her.  “I didn’t see anyone else from the ship and I thought … you and Grace …”

 

Charlie stretched a hand towards him to touch his arm.  Garrus jumped like she had burned him and turned back to face her with the indignant fire freshly renewed in his eyes.  “When I was told what had happened though, it all clicked.  The extra commands I had seen you enter all day.  The way you couldn’t quite meet my eyes towards the end.  You had done this to me.  You had betrayed me.  So, tell me why right now and it had better be a damn good answer for your sake.”

 

“Grace.”  Charlie simply said as soon as he paused.

 

“What about her?”

 

“We couldn’t both go to prison.  She’s fragile and needs support.  I had to choose between the both of us.  So naturally I chose you.”

 

Garrus painfully gripped Charlie shoulders.  “We should have discussed that eventuality.  Spirits be damned, we discussed everything else that day.”

 

“You wouldn’t have agreed to it and it needed to happen.”   Charlie raised her voice as she pushed him away from her.

 

There was a slight pause as he seemed to collect his thoughts.  “It didn’t need to happen.  We could have both gotten away with it.  You could have changed the logs for yourself as well as me.  So what was it, Charlie?  Did you think you were being noble?  That lady justice required a sacrifice and you decided to take the fall?  Do you think Grace would have been fine without you?  She would have been a wreck.  Do you know how I know?  Because I have been with her for the past couple of weeks and let me assure you that she needs you a lot more than she needs me.  So tell me, why?”

 

“What do you think the Alliance would have done to a turian?  Huh?”  Charlie threw the words in his face.  “Do you honestly think that either of us would not still be in prison right now?  There was no way I was going to let them get their hands on you.  But someone needed to go down.  I couldn’t change the records from the base.  They had me walking in there with a turian in tow.  Now they can’t prove that was you, but that’s only because I changed the records at the port and Academy to show you were already on board.  They can prove that it was me.  There was no way out of that one that I could find.”

 

Garrus clenched his hands in frustration.  “Then why not ask me?  Why not bring me into the discussion?  We could have found a way out of it together.  As a team.  That is what normal _sane_ people do.”

 

Charlie’s bravado and temper were short lived.  “I couldn’t take the risk that you would stop me from getting you off the hook.  I couldn’t let you be arrested … it would have been wrong.”

_Why don’t you just tell him that he is more important than you are?  Why don’t you admit that all of this playing you’ve been doing over the past ten years hit home when you realized that Garrus Vakarian might never meet Shepard and save the galaxy with witty one-liners and scopes if you let him get arrested?  He has a destiny and it’s rushing towards him.  You may have messed it up, but you’ll be damned if you completely screw the pooch.  So tell him that.  Tell him that you know things that are impossible.  Tell him why you tried so desperately to save him._  

 

“Charlotte.”  Garrus said in a low voice cutting off the silent voice inside of her.

 

“I’m sorry.  I was wrong.”  Charlie said while trying to look him in the eye and failing.

 

“You don’t think you were wrong at all.  You would go back and do the same thing.”  Garrus admonished.  If Charlie had been looking at him, she would have seen the first hint of a smile that broke on his face.

 

“No.  Maybe?”  Charlie spoke to the floor.

 

“Son of a bitch.”  Garrus growled heavily before wrapping his long arms about her in a firm embrace.  “Just don’t do it again.  No more secrets.  I need you to trust me the way I foolishly trust you.”

 

Charlie spent a half-second thinking of all of the secrets she kept from everyone she knew, before she returned the embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my lovely readers. So I have to ask a quick question. In a few chapters there will be the long awaited trip to Earth for Grace's Bat Mitzvah. There are several scenes that will absolutely take place there, however, the actual party is not one of them. I just want a small show of hands if anyone cares. I can easily add a bit of the party to the story and, because it's Charlie there will probably be shenanigans. But it's not integral to the story and plot.


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the poll yielded completely opposite results compared to the comments between here and ff. So I'm going to add the scene, but not let it draw too much focus. Anyways, it'll be posted in the next update. Thank you all for the love and support.

**August 2177**

 

“I still can’t believe that you left C-Sec.”  Garrus said after Charlie sat back down across from him.  He was repeating himself and he knew it, but the long sedentary flight was beginning to weigh on his nerves.

 

“Yeah, yeah I know.  By the way, I never asked how did Pallin take the news?”

 

A laugh escaped him before he caught himself.  “Oh, well no one is exactly sure, though he stomped around the office daring someone to mention your name for a while.  His anger has definitely been poorly bridled lately.  I think he’s hoping that someone will grow a spine and call him on it, like you used to do.  Right now, he’s just scaring people.”

 

Charlie’s laughter was a harsh music as it rippled through the bay and caused a few disgruntled passengers to glance their way.

 

“So, Security Consultant has to be a boring job.”

 

Charlie stretched her arms, clearly feeling the impatience of sitting for so long.  “Well I’m not as used to sitting that’s for sure.  So many new recruits to train and older staff members to beat into shape, it’s actually not that dull.  Besides I have an actual house with a yard, Garrus, and it is on an honest-to-goodness planet.  It’s kind of nice.  You should try it.”

 

When Charlie had first told Garrus that she was leaving C-Sec to live on Elysium he was only momentarily caught off-guard.  As soon as he realized that Grace was Charlie’s chief concern, he knew that it was the right decision.  Still his life had become strangely empty without Charlie’s large presence to fill the empty space.  His days had simultaneously become much less hazardous and Garrus was unsurprised to discover that he missed it.

 

“Someone had to stay behind and look after the Citadel.  Besides I don’t think domestication suits me very well.”

 

“It suits me just fine.”  Charlie’s voice was steady, but the pull of her smile labeled that statement a lie.  It was good to know he could still read her like a book.

 

“ _Thank you for choosing Pan Galactic for your travel needs.  We are now approaching the Meyers Transport Hub and we would like to welcome our passengers to Earth.  Please collect your carry on items once we dock and have a pleasant trip._ ”

 

The bored feminine voice cut off and Garrus reached below his seat for his military duffel bag.  Even though they were going to stay a week on Earth, none of them had over –packed for the occasion.  Except for Grace.  When Garrus had met the two women at Charlie’s home, he had honestly thought they would be ready to leave.  However Grace was still packing her already overflowing bag with clothes and items, while a weary Charlie looked on.  Eventually they had managed to fit every item Grace adamantly refused to leave behind in Charlie and Garrus’ bags. 

 

The cabin they were in did not have any windows, as was usual for a non-military transport.  This was both for safety reasons and because some people could not handle the view of quickly moving through space.  It wasn’t quite motion sickness, but as if their brains refused to handle the relative speed with which they were moving.  Because of this, Charlie had yet to see Earth.  When Garrus almost barreled into the stationary woman as they passed out of the ship and into a small corridor, he got a glimpse of her face.

 

Pure, unadulterated joy poured from Charlie’s features.  A tang of salt in the air told him that her eyes had begun to water.  Garrus stole a peek at the blue marble that had absorbed the attention of the woman and found it to be a fairly average planet.  Perhaps a little more water than he had been expecting, but fairly standard.  Of course, Garrus had travelled to many planets during his years in the turian military and the novelty had worn off.  Charlie bore the expression of a small child lost in the wonder of life, which was only slightly odd considering that Grace mirrored his own boredom.  They were both definitely ready to be done with this journey.

 

“Charlie, we’re going to miss the shuttle if you don’t hurry.”  Garrus told her with a nudge.  A startled face met his and she nodded her understanding before moving along the corridor.

 

“Weren’t you just on Earth?”  He asked her.

 

“Well, yes, but I never got to see the sky and I was shuttled from one small room to the next.  If I hadn’t been surrounded by humans I would never have known I was on Earth.”

 

The trip to the planet was brief, but Charlie was plastered against the side of the window the entire journey.  Garrus had to forcibly remind himself that this was the same woman who had blindly charged a mech into a group of combatants less than six months earlier, because this new Charlie was staring at the planet with wide-eyed glee and was visibly bouncing in her seat.  It was not a side of her that he saw very often.  There was no thinly veiled anger or violence.  There was just happiness.  Garrus had not been particularly excited about the prospect of visiting a planet comprised of a species that were still distrustful towards turians, but if it made Charlie this happy … maybe it was worth it. 

 

The shuttle station was extremely busy with fellow passengers when they arrived on the planet and it took them a solid forty-five minutes to pass through security.  Garrus was still grumbling about racial profiling when Charlie half dragged him to the exit and into a skycar. 

 

“No, you are not driving.”  Garrus firmly informed the fool woman when she attempted to get in the left side of the car.

 

“Come on, Garrus, this is my home planet; I think I can manage to get around safely.”  Charlie’s voice was firm, but her face told him that he had won the argument.

 

“I want to get there alive.  Get in.”  His voice may have been a little rough around the edges, but Charlie had not had to explain the nature of her visit to no less than eight poorly paid guards.  There were only so many times Garrus could say the words “Bat Mitzvah” before he wanted to strangle the men.

 

Charlie had been fairly silent on the trip to Earth, but the second she settled into the car her mouth refused to close.  “I have made up a list of places we just _have_ to visit before we leave.  So we absolutely have to visit Disney World, I can’t believe it’s still open.  Oh, oh and I already threatened Garrus with this, but we are definitely going to visit Ichnetucknee Springs before we leave.  It’s so beautiful.  You know what, Grace, I think we should visit, at least three of the beaches here and decide which one is our favorite.  I’ve always wanted to do that…”

 

After attempting to pay attention to the seamless stream of words pouring from Charlie’s mouth, Garrus blocked her out.  He could tell that most of the energy was nerves, but it didn’t really help the migraine that was slowly forming at the base of his fringe.

 

The house that he was given directions to was located on the beach and seemed to be an older style compared to the neighboring homes.  Garrus had to admit that it was lovely and since humans apparently liked the water a beachside home had to be nice.  The slightly weathered paint and the sand that blew in the backyard bothered Garrus though. 

_What an awful place to live.  Your back to the ocean, constant drifting fine sand, and a never ending battle against peeling paint and storms._

 

Charlie and Grace, however immediately cooed over the domicile and Garrus tried to remember the last time he had heard Charlie make that noise.  Since the women had apparently given up on getting the luggage, Garrus opened the trunk and tried not to grumble _too_ loudly about being stuck with the chore.

 

A door banged open and suddenly Garrus and the women were surrounded by several humans all of them chattering simultaneously.  His translator struggled to keep up with barrage of questions and exclamations.

 

“Oh, it’s so good to finally meet you!”

 

“We saw you on the reports.  Oh, such a terrible tragedy, but you were so brave.  But, oy, the sweet children.  So sad, so sad.”

 

“Is this your little girl?  What a beauty!  Come with me bubbala and I’ll show you to your room.”

 

“Oh no, we couldn’t possibly stay.”  That was Charlie’s voice and Garrus stood there awkwardly holding the luggage.  She had definitely told him that they were staying here.  “I couldn’t put you out like that.”

 

“Nonsense.”  The crowd of people, mostly women, exclaimed.

 

“Avi, would you get out here and help the poor man with the bags!”  A particularly loud older woman yelled towards the house.  There had been no introduction, but from what Garrus could tell she was the leader.

 

“Oh no, he’s fine.  You don’t need to help.”  Charlie, at once, told the woman.  Garrus, who was trying his best not to flounder under the luggage, stared at the back of her head.

 

A slim elderly man appeared in the doorway and made his way to Garrus’ side.  The man, apparently Avi, wore a brown sweater and seemed to make a point of casually walking to Garrus under the gaze of the loud woman.  The man slipped an arm under Charlie’s bag and jerked his bearded face towards the house.

 

“Come on, before they find something else for us to do.”  The man told Garrus with a smile toward the group of women.  Once within the safety of the house, he spoke again.  “Women, you get them together in group and they’re a pack of vultures.”

 

Even though Garrus had no idea what a vulture was, he found himself nodding along with the old man.

 

“I suppose they didn’t bother to introduce you to anyone?  Well I’m Avraham Kastner, but you can call me Avi.  You must be Garrus Vakarian?”

 

“Yes, Mr. Kastner.”  Garrus responded, impressed that the man knew who he was.

 

“Oh, such formality.  You will want to leave that behind here, we do not deal in such things.  I thought it was you, though I dare say some of the reports are using the wrong image.”

 

Garrus was caught off guard by the statement.  To the best of his knowledge, none of the reports on the events of Elysium, outside of Palaven, were mentioning him. 

 

Avi shook a gentle finger at him.  “You should not wear your emotions on your face, Garrus Vakarian.  You should also not be surprised that an old man runs a background report on all the visitors to his humble home.”

 

“I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same, sir.”

 

“Again with this ‘sir’ business.  Feh, I suppose I am too long out of practice with turians.  I forgot how serious they can be.”

 

Something clicked in Garrus’ mind and he spoke before he had time to process the thought.  “You served during the Relay 314 incident?”

 

Avi laughed.  “Serve?  No, no, but I was there.  There was not a more perfect place to be for a young, well younger, linguist.”

 

“Linguist?”

 

“ _May your day be untroubled and your spirit at peace._ ”

 

The oddest thing about hearing his language spoken by a human was that although Avi did not possess the correct vocal chords he made the language seem so fluid and musical.  It was a formal dialect, as well, one that Garrus had not heard in a long time.  The dialect of laws and formality, it was so odd to hear it on the tongue of a human.  Garrus was on the verge of continuing the conversation when the door opened and he was once again drowning the multitude of voices. 

 

“Avi, what you doing with that young man?  I thought you were going to let him settle in and instead I find you harassing the poor boy in the foyer?”  The small woman shouldn’t have looked intimidating.  Her appearance was slightly comical, with her hands on her hips, but Garrus heard the ringing sound of command in her tone and Avi quickly ducked to lift the bag. 

 

“Here let me.”  Charlie ducked fluidly around the mass of people and stole the bag from Avi.

 

“Your rooms are the second doors on your right and left when you reach the landing.”  Avi spoke with a smile.

 

“Did you know that Mr. Kastner can speak in turian?”  Garrus asked once they were alone upstairs.

 

“Yup.”  Charlie simply stated with a grunt as she plopped the bag onto the bed.

 

“How do you know that?”  Garrus asked baffled.

 

“I did a background check before we arrived.”  Charlie said with a shrug as she pulled her plain shirt off and put on a loose black top Garrus had never seen before.  The wide neck exposed her shoulders, however it also revealed the small white scars Nihlus had left.  Garrus’ eyes looked away out of politeness before he could stop them.

 

“What?  I’ve gotten dressed in front of you before.  Stop being weird.  Anyways, you really think that I would travel halfway across the galaxy and stay in a stranger’s house without first running a simple background check?”

 

Garrus rolled his eyes in the very human expression.  “You are displaying the marks.”

 

Charlie looked down at her shoulder and eyed the scarred area.  “Eh, whatever.  I doubt anyone will know what they are anyways.”

 

“You think the man downstairs who speaks as fluent high turian as your subvocals will allow won’t know exactly what those are?”

 

Charlie paused as she screwed her face up.  She shook her loose curls and said.  “I don’t care.  It’s not like I make a secret of my private life.  You ready?  We should probably head back.  People will talk.”  She winked at him as she opened the door.

 

“They’ll _start_ talking?”  Garrus dryly asked.

 

Charlie’s harshly musical laugh echoed off of the walls.

 

* * *

 

 

Jacksonville was wrong.  She had felt it when she first stepped out of the terminal.  The air shouldn’t feel circulated.  It should have smelled like a polluted river, of mud and homeless men and women, of the stale sickly scent of an old coffee factory.  All of that should have the underlying tang of salt that carried itself on the wind.  It should have smelled like coming home.

 

Instead Charlie might as well have been on the Citadel breathing in the same tired circulated air.  It smelled lifeless.  The old buildings were gone, but then she should have expected that.  They were replaced by brightly white skyscrapers.  It felt fake and wrong and dead. 

 

They had been on Earth less than a day and Charlie already felt older.  So unbearably old.  Walking through the streets of her old neighborhood, her eyes darted around hoping to catch some familiarity.  She needed something to ground her, because Charlie had never felt so much like a ghost. 

 

“Isn’t rather unoriginal to name a path in a park Park Street?”  Garrus asked with a chuckle. 

 

Charlie didn’t look up at him, but replied, “It used to be a street that through Riverside before it was made into a park.  I guess they just kept the name.”

 

There had been so much history in Riverside when Charlie had lived there.  Of course most of it was not good history and many of the older buildings were in rough shape back then, but Charlie had mistakenly assumed that the Historical Society would take care of the area.  Instead they had cleared it of all the buildings and replaced it with a large park.  It wasn’t even called Riverside anymore.

 

She was fairly sure she should be looking at Lomax.  The dive bar she had first met Justin in.  Where she had first played music in front of people.  Of course the entire audience had been comprised of friends, but that didn’t steal any of the magic.  The coffee shop should have been next door.  Where the obnoxiously gay man always knew her order and always had her latte waiting for her.  There was nothing there now, of course.  Nothing to ground her.  This wasn’t her Earth.  This was a dead imposter. 

 

Charlie had held onto the memory of what Earth was so tightly that she had actually half-believed that it would be waiting for her when she returned.  Now it was gone.  Charlie tried to force her legs to stand still, but instead they traced the old route home.  She cut across the grass and then turned sharply ninety degrees where the stop light should have been.  Charlie was only dimly aware that Garrus and Grace were closely following her. 

 

Her feet stopped walking obediently in front of what should have been Justin’s home.  The house that he bought before he ever met her, but became Charlie’s home.  He had surprised her when she came home and found the safety grab bars attached to the walls.  The most thoughtful man she would ever know. 

 

Charlie forced her eyes to open and for a fraction of a second she imagined the house as it had been 165 years ago.  The dirty front porch that made up the entire front of the building with the old musty couch left out to absorb the rain and mildew.  The screen she had haphazardly erected to keep the worst of the mosquitoes out.  The lawn that, despite the subtropical environment, sternly refused to grow grass.  When the phantoms cleared, the only thing Charlie saw was a massive magnolia tree with its low heavy branches laden with waxy, broad leaves. 

 

It could have been the small sapling that she was always harping on Justin to remove from the lawn.  It was far more likely to have been planted purposefully years later, but the “could have been” was enough to make Charlie’s knees bend and fold under her.  Years of regret and pining swept over her and the walls she had carefully crafted to separate her lives were breached.  She tucked her body within the massive roots and the tears drew themselves from her eyes.

 

“Charlotte.”  The familiar dual tones called her, but did they even know who she was?  Did she know who she was?  Would any of her old friends recognize the woman crying like a child?  The woman who had killed men?  The woman who travelled to other solar systems?  The mother, the cop, the murderer, the –

 

“Charlotte, look at me.”  The voice cut into her self-indulgent sorrow.

 

Like a stretched too thin rubber band her tears broke and her life, as it currently stood, snapped back into focus.

 

“I’m fine.”  She lied to her shirt as she roughly scrubbed her face.

 

The turian’s face called her a liar, but his voice was blessedly silent.

 

“I’m fine.  Let’s go.”  Charlie abruptly stood and began brushing the dirt off of her pants.  There was nothing here anymore; even the ghosts were long dead.

 

Her face burned hot and red under the scrutiny of Garrus and she lifted her chin daring him to question her momentary weakness.  She felt just as naked under the soft eyes of Grace, but the girl simply took her hand and they walked away from the silent park.

 

* * *

 

 

The warm flood of alcohol buzzed just under her skin.  How long had it been since she last drank?

_Before Elysium if you can believe it._

 

Charlie laughed at the internal dialogue.  That was ridiculous.

 

 She had managed to get her emotions under control soon after leaving Riverside and the trio had spent the rest of their first day on Earth wandering aimlessly through the city.  Charlie forced her brain to imagine that this wasn’t Jacksonville and separate the two cities altogether.  Maybe forgetting would help?

_You don’t believe that._

_Shut up, I’m drunk and there’s conversating to be had.  I don’t have to talk to you right now._

 

However, Charlie had pulled herself away from the noise inside where Grace was loudly and comically getting an education on tradition.  She should have stayed inside the house and joined in the songs, but the ocean had called her.  Slipping out of the backdoor, Charlie awkwardly bounced as she tugged her boots off.

 

“Damn it, I was going to buy sandals today.  And.  I.  Forgot.”  Each pause was punctuated by another tug and predictably ended with Charlie landed square on her ass.  It was easier to take her boots off while sitting down.  Why had she forgotten that?

_You’re drunk._

_Schtup ir, I know it._

 

A taloned hand appeared in front of her and Charlie gratefully accepted it. 

 

“What are you doing out here?”  Garrus asked with a smirk.

 

“I’m trying to decide if I’m too drunk for a swim.”  Charlie replied hungrily eyeing the dark coastline.

 

“Didn’t you tell me that you were once stung by a – spirits what was the name that animal – they look like hanar.”  Garrus said.

 

Charlie felt the laughter threaten to rip her chest apart and leaned against the porch railing to prevent herself from falling over.  “Garrus that’s so racist.  Oh and it’s true, but they’re called jellyfish.  That may have happened once, but I didn’t have a big, strong turian to watch the water for evil jellyfish and sharks then.  Besides when did one little sting and trip to the ER ever stop me?”

 

“You were probably back in the water later that day.”  Garrus quipped.

 

Charlie mirth faltered for a moment.  “Actually that was a long time ago.  I was scared of murky water for a while after that.  However, that was then and this is now.  Right now I’m getting in the water.”

 

She darted off the porch and waded through the heavy sand dunes towards her destination. 

 

“Fine.”  Charlie heard the sarcastic voice behind her.  “I’ll just follow you and watch you get eaten.  What a glorious end to -- fuck!” 

 

In response, to the sudden exclamation Charlie spun around muscles tense.  It took her eyes a moment to find Garrus who had gracefully stumbled down a dune and landed on his ass.  Charlie’s laugh echoed in the night as she walked back to him. 

 

“Why would you wear boots on a beach, Garrus?  That’s just … that’s crazy.” 

 

“I don’t relish sand between my plates.”  He responded with embarrassment stretched in his voice. 

 

With a short bark of a laugh, Charlie dropped heavily down beside her friend.  They sat in silence for a moment watching the dark waves roll against the sand and listening to the static roar of the ocean.

 

“I can almost believe that I’m still a teenager getting drunk on the beach.”  Charlie murmured against the salty spray. 

 

“I can help with that.”  Garrus said as he drew a bottle wine from his pocket.

 

Charlie gave him an incredulous look.  “You just happened to have a bottle of wine … in your _pocket?_ ”

 

Garrus chuckled.  “To be fair, I also have one for me.”

 

“I can’t decide if you’re the best kind of friend or if we both have a severe drinking problem.”

 

“Probably both.”  Garrus replied with his mandibles stretched widely into a grin.

 

The moment seemed perfect and the idea that she should ruin it with a confession danced before her eyes.

 

Garrus seemed to feel the same and said.  “I think you owe me some secrets, Charlie.”

 

She silently toyed with the idea even though she knew what her decision was already.

 

“How drunk are you?”

 

Garrus tilted his hand back and forth.  “I’m a little drunk.”

 

“Alright, what if I told you something crazy?  Would you believe me?”

 

“I think I’ve already told you that I know you’re crazy.  However, you aren’t hard to believe.  You’re a dreadful liar.”

 

Charlie drew in another tangy breath of ocean.  “I’m not from here.”

 

Garrus’ response was a hum.

 

“Well I mean I’m human, so naturally I’m from Earth, but I’m more than a step out of time.”

 

Charlie stared at the fine, white sand, but when Garrus didn’t answer her she stole a glance at him.  His eyes didn’t meet hers and instead focused on the rolling waves.

 

“I’d, uh, tell you the specifics of how that is possible if I could, but I don’t really know.”

 

The words seemed to fall flat and Charlie’s mind ached with the stress of trying to draw the words that would explain the most, but tell the least.  Garrus still had yet to respond to her revelation and the shiver that latched onto her spine was not from the warm night air.

 

“Interesting.”  Garrus drawled in the familiar dry tone.  “The best I’ve been able to guess is that you were born around 1990 and you left around 2015.”

_What?_

 

“What?”  Her voice echoed in perfect harmony with her confused thoughts. 

 

“You’re a very bad liar and I am an exceptional detective.”  Garrus drawled perfectly pleased with himself as he leaned back against his arms. 

 

“And you don’t think I’m crazy?”  Charlie asked as air refused to properly stay in her lungs.

 

“Not anymore than usual.”

_That cheeky bastard._

 

Rage easily replaced the fear within Charlie. 

 

“How fucking dare you!”  She cried as punched his side.  Her alcohol muddled brain barely remembered to pull the punch.  “You made me wander about for the past, what has it been, 10 years feeling alone and crazy?  Why the fuck would you do that to me?”  Angry tears threatened her eyes.  This was exactly like Garrus.  Arrogant, self-righteous, --

 

“I didn’t know back then, Charlie.  Don’t give me so much credit.”  Garrus told her as he tried to get a hold on her wrists. 

 

She stopped struggling, but kept her body tense scared he was going to give her cause to strike him again or that she was going to have to run.  Her brain was still running scared and her body didn’t know what to make of the conversation.

 

“I picked it up in little pieces.  I guess I formed the theory a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t sure.”  Garrus continued talons still closed around her wrists.  “You’re so damned closed off whenever I would ask questions about your past that I wasn’t really sure.”

 

“Until today.”  Charlie finished for him as she stole her hands back and reclaimed her seat beside him.

 

Garrus scratched the back of his neck.  “Yeah.”  He finished flatly.

 

“Well there it is my big secret.  Do you blame me for not telling you before?”

 

His response was immediate.  “No.”

 

Her relief was slow in coming, but felt wonderful.  “I would like to add that you were off on your dates, but strangely accurate with my age.”

 

Garrus quirked one eyebrow at her.

 

“I was born in 1987 and I … left in 2013.”

 

“What happened?”  His voice was quiet with uncertainty.

 

Charlie shrugged in a lame attempt at casual.  “I touched a black pillar.  It was smooth and beautiful.  There was a song.  I’ve tried to recreate it, but my mind slips off of the melody.  One moment I was dreading a math test and the next I woke up on Mindoir ten years younger.  Wow.”  She said with a short bark of a laugh.  “I haven’t thought about that in years.”

 

“I can barely imagine the shock that must have been.”

 

Charlie let out an honest peel of laughter.  “You seriously have no idea.  It was crazy.”  She inhaled a breath of fresh air. 

 

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”  When he noticed her hard stare, he added, “Not that I blame you, but you could have told me.”

 

“What was I supposed to say?”  Charlie responded with a dry laugh.  “Hi, I know we’ve been friends for years, but I’ve just decided that you are trustworthy enough to handle my deepest secrets.  I’m a time traveler?”  She scowled at the last statement.  “Ugh, saying that out loud makes me sound mental.  It’s much easier to pretend it didn’t happen or happened to someone else.”

 

“It does sound like a horrible plot to an equally terrible science fiction movie.”  Garrus chuckled.  “What was that park we visited to you then?”  His voice held a nervous timber, as if he was afraid to ask her.

 

“I used to live there.”  Charlie responded quietly, or as quietly as she could and still be heard over the wind.  A questioning look from Garrus prompted her to continue speaking.  “It used to be a neighborhood.  It was an odd mix of overflow from Downtown Jacksonville and historic Avondale.  All of the buildings were old and falling down.  It wasn’t exactly a wholesome environment, but I loved it.  Even though my van was broken into several times.”  It was far too strange for Charlie to tell this to Garrus’ face.  Instead she closed her eyes and conversed with the windborne sand.  “We had this old couch on the front porch, it was absolutely disgusting.  On the weekends, we would wake up and find drunk strangers passed out on the thing.  We never cared though.  We’d just smoke a cigarette with them and offer some water.  There was a kind of simplicity to it.  I still had worries and problems, but they were nothing like what I have now.  I didn’t have to worry about Grace being kidnapped or crime syndicates or red sand; just bills and school.”  Charlie had not been expecting to tell Garrus so much, but once she started talking she couldn’t stop.  Telling someone was such a relief.

 

“We?”  Garrus asked when she stopped for a drink of wine.

 

“Yeah,” Charlie paused for a moment before telling him.  “I lived with my boyfriend, Justin.  God, you would have hated him.  He was gentle and sweet.  I don’t think we ever got in an argument together and shockingly that didn’t bother me.  He had a certain kind of magic that could completely diffuse any kind of altercation.  It wasn’t that he always agreed with me, but he was just so kind about it.  You know me; I love a good violent discussion.”  Charlie chuckled to herself.  When Garrus didn’t join in the laughter, she continued.  “I miss him.  Sometimes I wish he had come with me, but I know he couldn’t have handled it.  Justin had crippling anxiety and I think this would have been too much for him.  Do you want to know the worst part of it, Garrus?”

 

Charlie opened her eyes to look at the turian.  He silently nodded at her.  “The worst part is that I can’t remember what color his eyes were.  I can remember the chords to all of his band’s songs, but I can’t remember if his eyes were blue or brown.  Those colors are completely different and I can’t remember.  Sometimes when I try and conjure up his face all I get is a blur of beard and glasses.  I loved him, Garrus.  And now … I don’t know.  A therapist would probably tell me I’m living in the past, but I don’t know if I want to stop or how.”

 

Her voice broke several times during the speech, but by end it was shattered.  Charlie looked away from the miserable expression on Garrus’ face and stared again at the ocean.  She wondered how far out she could swim before her arms tired. 

 

“I wish I had some wisdom to share with you, Charlie.”  Garrus’ voice cut through her grief and she rubbed her face against her sleeve.  “But I don’t know what to say to you.”

 

“What you’ve never had to leave a girlfriend in the past before?”  Charlie’s lame attempt at humor pulled a small smile from Garrus.

 

“No, I don’t think I have.  Although I have been drunk enough so ... maybe?”  Charlie smiled at the joke and Garrus continued.  “All I can say is that he sounds like a good man and I don’t think he would want you to be mourning him after all these years.  You didn’t leave him, Charlie, you were forcibly taken away.  I know that is poor comfort to you.”

 

Garrus awkwardly shifted on the loose sand and looked incredibly uncomfortable as he tried to find the correct words to tell her.  Charlie took pity on him nudged his side. 

 

“Thank you, Garrus, for listening to me.”

 

“Any time.” 

 

They sat together in silence for a while, each of them considering the past conversation.  Charlie felt almost giddy with the feeling of unwrapping her long kept secret.  She wondered if it was simply the wine or she had actually gotten lighter, because she felt like she was going to float up above the sand.  She wasn’t sure how long they sat there quietly contemplating the beach. 

 

“So what about you, Mr. Vakarian, do you have any secrets to share?”  Charlie eventually broke the comfortable quiet.

 

The silence to her left prickled between her shoulder blades.  She hadn’t actually been expecting that Garrus was harboring secrets.  A cautious glance to her left revealed her old partner idly stroking his neck. 

_He_ does _have a secret._

 

“Fair is fair.  Spill.”

 

“Alright.”  Garrus breathed heavily.  “I’m mad at Nihlus.”

 

Charlie blinked rapidly and almost coughed up the wine she was drinking.   “I’m sorry, what?”

 

“The marks.”  He waved a hand at her shoulder.  “He shouldn’t have done that.  Especially when you clearly have no idea what they mean.”

 

Charlie considered laughing, but a sober part of her muddled brain advised against it.  “Alright, what do they mean?”

 

“Uh, I’m not sure how well this is going to translate.  They’re a sign of marking your territory.”

 

“Like I’m property?”  Charlie couldn’t mask the dangerous tone in her voice.

 

“No, no.”  Garrus quickly amended.  “Not like property, but like telling others that you are taken.  He shouldn’t have done that.  It’s considered inappropriate and rude.  Of course, you collect scars like trophies, but the implications of those should have been made clear.”

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?”  Charlie said the words low and barely above a whisper.

 

“At first I thought you knew.  It would be very much like you to taunt another culture.  When I realized you didn’t … I don’t know.  It’s an odd thing to bring up in the middle of a conversation.”  Garrus’ body was tense and his half-hearted attempts at levity fell flat.

 

Charlie made a thoughtful hum.  “Well now I don’t know if I should keep them.”

 

“Do you have strong feelings for Nihlus?”

_No._

 

Charlie shook her head in response.

 

“I don’t think you should keep them then.”  Garrus said in a rush.  When Charlie quirked an eyebrow at his statement, he continued.  “I know that you like to keep the scars as a reminder of who you are, but this is a turian …”  He paused as he searched for the correct word.  “It’s a turian tradition.”

 

Charlie followed his eyes to the house behind them.  The loud music was only partially deafened by the walls. 

 

“Alright, Garrus.”  Charlie said with a smirk.  “I’ll get rid of them.  Of course, if this is all an elaborate attempt to replace them with your own.  It will take more than a bottle of wine and a pack of Ignis to get all of this.”

 

Garrus’ anxiety shattered under her crude joke and he said.  “Spirits, I can only imagine what being with you would be like.  You would yell at me, tell me I was doing it wrong, and then hit me.  I already take enough abuse from you; I don’t think my poor self-esteem could handle it.”

 

The ludicrous notion of Garrus Vakarian with low self-esteem left Charlie laughing longer than was probably necessary. 

 

“You’re a good friend, Garrus.”  Charlie said with a gentle nudge to her side. 

 

“I was under the impression that I was the _best_ at being your friend.”  His words slurred lazily together and Charlie nudged him a bit harder this time.


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about missing my update yesterday. So I have a tiny chapter to start with and I am updating a second chapter simultaneously. This one is more character development and I'm not particularly proud of it.

The past few days had been nothing short of fascinating for Grace.  She had known about Jewish culture and tradition from Char, but that hadn’t prepared her for the experience of seeing it in action.  The Kastners were louder, if that was even possible, than Char.  There was an interesting phenomenon that she noted after spending a day with the large group.  Individually they were considerably more sedate and calm, but put them in a group and the energy seemed to grow exponentially.  At first the collision of so many differing conversations and exclamations had been overwhelming for Grace, but after a little time she found it almost relaxing.  Though carrying on five different conversations at once was a little taxing.  Sarcasm ran deep in the family, however Grace had had years of training in that particular language from Garrus and Char. 

 

The Kastners did tend to use more Yiddish and Hebrew than Grace knew.  When she mentioned this to Char, the woman just laughed and whispered, “That’s because I don’t know Hebrew that well.  It’s been a long time.”  To which Grace had whispered back, “Then why do I have to learn it?”  Char had infuriatingly just laughed as a response.  Technically she didn’t have to learn the whole language.  She just had to memorize a passage, but it was still difficult.  The way Rabbi Kastner read the passage in the sing-song voice made the language seem simple, but it was anything but. 

 

The complexity of the religion and language was confoundedly off-set by the laid back attitudes of the people around her.  Whenever Grace asked a question about Judaism she was met with smiles and laughter, followed by ten completely different answers, which was then followed by loud arguments between the answerers.  The only constant was that the end result was food.  Mrs. Kastner, or one of her many kids and grandchildren, would appear with a tray of food and the arguments would end in delighted coos and full bellies.  Despite the fact that Char had never met these people, she blended perfectly into the large family.  Grace felt a little like an outsider.  Even more so than Garrus, who had been “adopted” by the Kastners and he even occasionally partook in the arguments.  Mostly though he would sneak out of the room with Rabbi Kastner and have long discussions about turian culture.

 

“I don’t think I understand Judaism.”  Grace announced to olive skinned woman as she laid down on the beach towel next to her.

 

“Join the club.”  Char murmured with her eyes closed.

 

“Seriously, I just don’t get it.  There are so many inconsistencies in the Torah and I know that it can’t possibly be factually accurate.” 

 

Char laughed until tears formed in the corners of her eyes before she rolled over to look at Grace.  “Are you trying to justify the Torah?  Well there is your first mistake.”  Her blue eyes traced the lines of frustration on Grace’s and she added.  “So what don’t you understand?”

 

It was easier to list what she did understand about the religion.  She sat there trying to coax the words into something less confrontational and possibly offensive before she realized that she was talking to Char.  The woman was practically the embodiment of confrontational and offensive.  “Do you actually believe in God?”

 

The woman’s eyes widened and she blew out of the side of her mouth.  “Well that’s a loaded question.  Uh … I don’t know, maybe?  I mean he _could_ exist.  Stranger things have happened.  However, I don’t think that’s the core of why you don’t understand Judaism.”

 

It really wasn’t, but it was a start.  “Why do you practice a religion that you don’t believe in?”

 

“Hang on; I never said I don’t believe in Judaism.  Ugh, this is difficult.  I’m probably not the one to give you the most philosophical argument.  Judaism has always been about family, friends, and living your life to me.  It’s a binding cord that wraps all of these people together.  It’s about remembering who we were and who we are and trying to make the most out of what we have.  I know that there are people who believe strongly in God and I’m not taking that away from them, but for me it’s always been about family and remembering.”

 

Grace nodded her head.  “It just seems very superstitious.”

 

Char’s smile grew wider.  “A lot of it is. I still catch myself whispering 'God forbid' when I'm stressed and thinking of all the things that could go wrong.  However if you break down why we do the things we do, it might make Judaism clearer.  First of all, think about Judaism as a culture versus a religion.  All of our holy days revolve around group feasts.  Why?  Because life that is shared is a better life.  I know that all of this is strange, but to the people out there” Char stretched her arm to encompass the Kastners and their friends.  “It’s something they were born into.  It’s a culture.  It’s true that it is so close to many other cultures.  I mean our Ten Commandments are hardly original stuff.  A lot of other cultures focus on working together, living life as a community, being thankful for what you have, and remembering what you might have lost; however this culture is ours.  It’s our little corner of safety in this giant galaxy.  Personally, Judaism has grounded me many times."

 

Grace could understand that.  Like lessons that were learned over and over until they became droll rhetoric.  Usually she didn’t have to use mnemonics to remember the months or capitals or history, however every once in a while her brain refuses to work properly and she has that crutch to fall back on.  So maybe religion didn’t exist for the vast majority of your days, maybe its purpose was to help you when you had a really bad day.  When your troubles seemed to outweigh your entire person and you don’t know what comes next.  Maybe religion was for that.  On a normal day, Grace wouldn’t have to remember to love or forgive or to not covet her neighbor’s wife. 

 

Grace smiled at the bikini clad woman beside her and rolled over onto her back to soak up the sun.  “That still doesn’t explain the chair dance.  The Horah?  What is the meaning of that?”

 

* * *

 

 

Charlie could not help the goofy grin plastered on her face.  Grace was attempting to circumvent the surprisingly large group to reach her, but the girl was continuously cornered by older women.  Charlie could not hear what the conversations were about, but she could guess.  Finally Grace shot her a look across the noisy park and Charlie chuckled and set her glass of wine down on the table. 

 

“Looks like Grace needs an evac.”  Garrus rumbled to her right.

 

“I’m going, I’m going.”  Charlie stated with mock exasperation.

 

The service had been short, much shorter than Charlie had remembered from her own childhood.  Grace had simply read a portion of the Torah for the Shabbat service and then Rabbi Kastner had taken over.  What Charlie was incredibly suspicious about was how perfect Grace’s Hebrew had been.  The lilting chant was flawless.  Charlie had spent years going to weekly school sessions with Rabbi Applebaum and her Hebrew was nowhere near as good.  Grace had had one week. 

 

When Charlie reached the girl she found that the conversation was exactly what she thought it was.  Some woman (Charlie recognized her from the service, but didn’t know her name) had cornered Grace and was going on in some detail about her nephew who was apparently only a year older than the girl. 

 

“I’m sure that he is a very nice boy, but I don’t live on Earth, ma’am.”  Grace’s face was strained with quickly dissolving patience. 

 

The woman waved her hand as if differing solar systems did not matter.  “Yes, but you should meet him.  How often does one meet a good Jewish boy?  Hmm?”

 

Charlie bit back a chuckle and slipped one arm around Grace.  “Ma’am, I believe that someone at the tables was looking for you.”  She told the woman and quickly steered Grace away before the woman had a chance to react.

 

Once they were out of earshot Charlie looked down at Grace.  “Lesson one:  Do not engage them.”

 

Grace stopped walking and put her hands on her hips.  “Why are they all trying to marry me off?”

 

Charlie let out a short laugh at the small woman.  Grace appeared to be a delicate china doll to her.  The girl was wearing a short lace covered light green dress with sheer lace long sleeves.  It struck a nice balance between the child and adult.  To Charlie though, Grace was always a child.  It didn’t help that Grace had only just surpassed five feet tall.  For the girl to assume any intimidating pose was adorable to Charlie. 

 

“If they were _really_ trying to marry you off, you would have a ring on your finger and be standing at an altar before you could blink.”  Charlie smiled down at the girl. 

 

“It’s not funny, Char.”  Grace admonished the older woman.  “I’m only fifteen.  I shouldn’t even be considering marriage until I’m, at least, your age.”

 

“That long, huh?”  Charlie chuckled.  “Well I have already had several dates thrust upon me from this crowd.  I don’t really know why they try so hard, but think of it like a compliment.  They think you are good enough for their own family.”

 

Charlie took Grace’s pause as an opportunity to lead the girl away from the crowd.  “So how did you do it?”  Charlie asked Grace once they were alone.

 

There was a slight falter in the younger woman’s step that Charlie did not miss.  “What do you mean?”

 

Charlie didn’t say anything to her, but stared into Grace’s green eyes.  She knew the girl knew exactly what she meant. 

 

Grace fiddled with her fingers.  “Fine,” Grace said.  “I stole the words from Rabbi Kastner.”

 

Charlie raised an eyebrow at the statement.  “What does that mean exactly?  Can you speak Hebrew now?”

 

“No.”  Grace said with a frown.  Charlie was not so much a fool to not know that Grace was attempting to placate her.  Her frown and general demeanor were too finely crafted to be genuine.  “I tried to learn, but I just couldn’t get it right.  So, I borrowed what I was going to say from the Rabbi.”

 

“It didn’t have to be perfect, Grace.”  Charlie knew better than to hide her emotions around the girl.  Even though she knew that she needed to admonish her, Charlie couldn’t help but feel a fair amount of pride in Grace.  Grace had been thrust into an impossible situation and had used her natural abilities to pull it off.  It had to have been a risky move, but it paid off. 

 

“I know it didn’t have to be perfect,” Grace said and then lifted her head to look straight at Charlie.  “But I wanted it to be.  Not for you or anyone there, but because I wanted to be the best.”

 

Charlie blew air out of her mouth and leaned against the rough bark of an oak.  “Wanting to be the best is a good goal to have, but it’s a dangerous road to go down.  I know I can’t stop you from using your abilities, however try to take a bit of caution with you.  You are incredibly powerful.  You have proven that over and over again.  The more you prove your strengths, the more people will recognize them.”  Charlie put a hand on Grace’s shoulder.  “I promise you that you do not want to draw too much attention from people.  Now I know that I seem to be telling you one thing and then doing the exact opposite, but you are more important than I am.”

 

Grace shook her head at the last statement.

 

Charlie smirked and said, “You really are.  Grace, you are an incredibly intelligent woman and I know that you know exactly what I’m referring to.  I am allowed to be a little reckless and loud, because I, in the long run, am unimportant.  However, there will be people who see you not as a woman but as a mystery and curiosity.  Because of this you need to pass unnoticed.  I would never tell you to not use your abilities, but use them wisely.  Use them to be the best, but exercise caution and mask your true power.”

 

Grace spread her hand in front of her and studied the appendage.  “Before the attack on the station, I was scared of what I can do.  I felt like a freak.  My teachers would push me to ‘master’ my biotics, but I always held back a little.  But now, I don’t know, it feels different.  On the one hand, I have a small voice telling me not to enter another’s mind, but a greater part of me is screaming for more.  Char, I have killed people.  How do I reconcile that?  Is there something wrong with me that I want to feel that powerful again?”  Grace looked up at Charlie and clenched her fists at her side.  “I don’t mean that I want to murder someone, but there was a rush that followed saving people.  I was stronger than the turian.  I’ve never been stronger.  I’ve always been the child.  But for a horrible moment I was the powerful one and I liked it.  I don’t want to go back to being weak ever again.”

 

Charlie reexamined the young woman standing in front of her.  Grace was deceptively calm and quiet.  Even though she knew the details of what had transpired on the station, Charlie had never heard Grace describe it in such detail.  The teenager had her own secrets and was very good at keeping them.  She was right though, Charlie had always considered her a child and that was a mistake.

 

“Grace,” Charlie spoke without knowing where the sentence would lead her.  “I know that feeling well.  When I was your age I picked up rugby, because I felt weak.  I didn’t have a lot of control over my life, but finding something that I was good at made me feel strong.  I’m not going to tell you that I know what it is like to be a biotic, but I understand feeling like an outsider.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to test your strength or abilities, but just get permission first if the person is not a foe. 

 

“As important as it is to feel powerful, it is more important to know your weaknesses.  When I played rugby, I didn’t really understand my weaknesses and I suffered a crippling injury because of it.  I can’t stop you from getting hurt, but I can pass on some knowledge of my own.”  Charlie stole a glance at Garrus across the park.  “I’m not supposed to tell you what your present is.  Garrus will probably kill me, but such is life.  We have researched quite a few different martial art styles and sports that you might excel at.”

 

Actually Charlie and Garrus had spent months researching the subject.  Shortly after Charlie moved to Elysium, Grace and Micah had approached Charlie and firmly asked her to train them in hand-to-hand and weapons.  Obviously Charlie was thrilled with the idea.  After gaining permission from Micah’s father she brought the pair to a gym and began simple training.  Micah had taken to combat like a natural, but Grace had floundered.  The girl didn’t really have the strength or height to follow through most of the exercises.  Charlie tried several techniques with Grace, but she just wasn’t particularly good at hand-to-hand.  So Grace left the training to Micah and focused on weapons training which she was fairly decent at.  Charlie had not given up though. 

 

“Now I know that you think biotics don’t need to excel at close fighting, but I can assure you that is not true.”  Charlie smiled at Grace and tried to exorcise some of the severity of the conversation.  “So, we tried to find something that would let you utilize your natural tactical gift.  I know that this might seem a little …”  Charlie searched for the appropriate word.  “Old school, but we found an excellent teacher in Illyria.  So how do you feel about fencing?”

 

There was a pause where Grace seemed to consider the idea.  “With a sword?”  She asked doubtfully.

 

“Well not exactly a sword.  There are three different weapons that they use.”

 

“When am I going to duel someone?”  Grace asked with a smirk.

 

Charlie rolled her eyes.  “Hopefully never, though that would be kind of awesome.  Fencing will train your muscles and give you more strength and flexibility, but I think the best part is that it’s a mind game.  Learning from your opponent and reading their strengths and weaknesses, we kind of thought this might be good for you.  If you don’t want to do it, I won’t push you, but Garrus might.  Apparently he didn’t know that humans dueled with swords and has barely shut up about it since.”


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you guys know, I posted two chapters today. So you might want to skip back a page and check it out. Also this chapter takes place two years after the trip to Earth. To prevent confusion, Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and, yes, it would take place in October of 2179. It is also one of my favorite holidays as it involves eating lots of sweets. :)

**October 2179**

 

The doorbell rang and broke Charlie’s concentration.  “Can someone _please_ get that?”  The strained note of anxiety pulled through her voice.  She heard it, but didn’t bother to correct it.  Why had she had that fool notion to cook so much food?  It was just for the four of them.

 

The ringing of the chime sounded a second time through the kitchen.  “Holy shit, Garrus.  One thing, one thing I ask you to do!  Can you just answer that damn door?”  Charlie punctuated the sentence with a slam of the oven door, which she immediately regretted.  Garrus had been in and out of the kitchen the entire day.  As her appearance and mental fortitude had slowly eroded, his annoying question of “Is there anything I can do to help?” had only succeeded in driving her further into madness.

 

Charlie wrestled the annoying (when had everything become an annoyance today?) apron off her head and briskly walked out of the kitchen.  A large turian blocked her path.

 

“Who was it?”  Charlie asked not unkindly as she saw the strained look on his plates.

 

“It’s … Nihlus.”  He replied with a very avian tilt of his head.

 

“What?  I didn’t invite him.”  She replied as if that would make the interruption go away.  “Alright, I’ll take care of it.  You need to keep an eye on the baklava.  It’ll be ready in … about fifteen minutes, but you’re going to need to check on it.  The top needs to be brown, but not too brown.  It needs to be crispy, but soft.  We don’t want dried out baklava.”

 

The wide-eyed expression he gave her prompted them to speak simultaneously.

 

“You know what just ask Grace to check.”  She said as he said.  “I’ll ask Grace.”

 

Charlie made the short journey out of the house and immediately found the turian sitting in her chair on the porch.  Instead of acknowledging him, she made a show of slowly sitting down in the opposite guest, usually Garrus’, chair and lighting a cigarette. 

 

“What are you doing here?”  She asked.

 

The turian lazily turned to observe her and noted her bedraggled appearance.  Charlie noted his with a flicker of concern.  Nihlus was dressed in full armor, which was highly unusual for him.  “What kind of party are you having in there?  It has to be the good kind if you are covered in white powder.”

 

“This is flour.”  Charlie responded dryly.  “You didn’t answer my question.”

 

“I’m not invited?”

 

“No, you are not.”  Charlie said firmly.  “We have a strictly professional relationship.  Inside is for family only.”

 

With a smirk and a raised eyeplate, Nihlus responded.  “Is that what we have, Nacht, a professional relationship?  If you consider this ‘professional’, then that explains how you were able to get away with so much during your C-Sec years.”

 

Charlie smiled in spite of herself.  “Point taken.  You didn’t come all the way to Elysium for an invitation to my Rosh Hashanah party, so why are you here?”

 

“You owe me a favor.”

 

“I do?”  Charlie knew exactly what Nihlus was talking about, but feigning ignorance was the only gambit she could come up with.  She had been dreading this conversation for a while now.

 

“You’re right; you actually owe me two favors.”

 

Charlie closed her eyes and forced her lungs to not betray her with a sigh.  “What do you want?”

 

“Nothing too difficult.  I want you to come on a little trip with me.”  Nihlus offered a smile, but Charlie detected just a hint of a falter.  He was tense.  Which made sense since Nihlus was not the type to call in favors.  He was more of a collector.

 

“Where?” 

 

His eyes darted from hers so quickly Charlie almost missed it.  “Omega.”

 

“No, absolutely not.”  Her reply was forceful and immediate. 

 

“Why?  Aren’t you a little bored here?  Come on, Nacht.  It’ll be fun.  Grace is almost eighteen; she can take care of herself for a little while.”  Charlie noted that his argument was exceedingly weak and wondered what that meant.

 

“A Spectre doesn’t have that much power out in the Terminus Systems.”  She stated as she mulled over the concept.  Every conversation and interaction with Nihlus had been a battle.  This one was no different.  “So why would you go out there and why drag a former cop with you?  Neither of us has any power nor influence out there.”

 

“You wouldn’t be going as a former cop; you’d be going as a silent partner who can be fairly intimidating.”

 

“I’m much more interested in _why_ you are going out there.”

 

Nihlus broke his eyes from Charlie, stretched his legs, and stood.  His armor could not conceal the growing tension between his plates.  “Because you were right.  Cerberus is staging something on the Citadel.  There are now three districts under their control.  I don’t have proof, but you were right Nacht.  I’m going out there to try and find out for myself.  Whatever their plan is, it does not bode well for the Citadel.”

_Damn it._

_You’re going aren’t you?_

_Yes._

_Damn it._

_I know._

 

“I have a job here.  I don’t know if I’m going to be given that much time off on such short notice.” Charlie lied to the turian.  Her position had once been a flexible one as a security consultant, but she had slowly accrued more and more responsibilities until she was essentially Director of Security for the now planetside Jon H. Grissom Academy.

 

Nihlus’ response was a knowing nod of his head, but the subtle movements of his plates spoke volumes.

_He knows that you have plenty of vacation time saved up and they’ve been harassing you about taking it._

_How?_

 

“Fine, but I have some requirements.”  A sharp jerk of Nihlus’ head spurred her further.  “I want a new suit, I’ll send you my measurements and specs.  This trip will not last longer than a month.  Also, I’m not leaving until this weekend is over.  I’ve put too much time into planning it.”

 

Nihlus immediately stretched a too quick arm out to seal the words.  “Deal, but this still only counts as one favor you owe me.”

 

Charlie considered arguing the point with him, but instead clasped arms with him and then he was gone.  Stubbing out her cigarette, Charlie huffed a sigh and walked back into the house.  She attempted to compose herself for the conversation with Grace and Garrus.

 

“Well?”  Garrus said abruptly from directly in front of her.  Charlie jumped back startled in spite of herself.  “What did he want?”

 

Charlie pulled the band from her hair and shook out the loose curls.  The action relieved some of the tension she was feeling.  “He asked for a favor.”

 

“And you said yes.  What is it?”

 

“I’m going on a trip.  It’ll probably be a fairly long one.”  Charlie said as she sat down on the low table in the foyer.  She scowled at the protesting creak under her weight.

 

“Where?”

 

“Really, you’re just going to harass me with questions?”  Charlie wondered if Garrus could see her scowl under the curtain of black curls.

 

“Yes.”  Garrus replied with a smirk that said he had seen her expression.  “That is until you actually tell me what is going on.”

 

“Smartass.”  Charlie sighed.  “Fine, little-prissy-ass-Spectre is scared to go out to the Terminus systems all alone.  So, I’m accompanying him to Omega.”  Her judgment on Nihlus was far from fair, but the levity helped her at the moment.  “Garrus, it’s about Cerberus and the gang problem on the Citadel.  I have to go.”

 

Garrus’ eyes narrowed at the pleading tone in her voice.  “I’m not arguing that it doesn’t sound important, but why you?” 

 

She shrugged.  “I owe him a favor, or apparently two.”

 

Garrus made a thoughtful noise before he swiftly crossed the room and made her crane her neck to keep her eyes on him.  “He’s making you a Spectre.  This is all of the classic signs.  Take you out on a mission and witness how you handle decisions.”

 

Charlie stood up and pushed Garrus back a step.  “That is not happening.”  She said the words in her best stern commanding tone.  “Even _if_ that’s what he thinks he is doing.  I am not going to become a Spectre and I believe I still have the final say in what happens in my life.”

 

“You’re a fool if you don’t believe that there is another reason for him taking you to Omega with him.”  Garrus said in a low voice.

 

Charlie was about to respond, but Grace’s voice called from behind her.  “Baklava is done and the lamb is out of the oven.”

 

“Okay dear, call Micah and set the table.  We’ll be there in a moment.”  Charlie turned back to Garrus, but his face had shifted from serious to concern for her.  She gave him a smile she did not feel and said.  “Well it’s a hell of a way to start my new year.”

 

* * *

 

 

Grace woke up before the adults.  She swiftly put on her clothes and crept quietly out of her room.  Last night had been interesting.  It was supposed to have been fun and a break from the pressure of her senior year, but instead it had been intriguing.  Grace had never met Nihlus.  She supposed that she still hadn’t met him, but now she knew a little bit more about the sometime lover of Char.  It was definitely odd that Char never invited him over and the few times that Grace was sure that he had been in the house Char had carefully hid all of the evidence.  Grace had her theories as to why her guardian acted in such a perplexing manner, not that she would ever ask directly.  That was not her style.  Char always emanated protectiveness towards Grace whenever Nihlus was around.  There was also an undeniable slant of guilt that tugged at the corners of Char’s mind.  Grace never even considered intruding on Char’s thoughts and unraveling the mystery.  Again that was not Grace’s style, and it was an intrusion, she preferred to gather hints and clues around her and fit the pieces together like a puzzle.

 

After Micah had left that evening, Char had told her about the unexpected trip with Nihlus.  Grace was not particularly concerned about the woman’s safety until she felt the subtle anger and protectiveness from Garrus wash over her.  Char was naturally resonating her usual arrogant confidence.  Grace knew there wasn’t much that she could do to prevent her from leaving.  If she was being truly honest with herself, Grace was a little excited about having the house for an entire month.  She was, after all, seventeen and Micah had grown into such a handsome young man. 

 

A sudden intruding presence cut off anything thoughts that had threatened to form about her high school sweetheart and Grace quietly slipped out the front door before the courier could ring the chime. 

 

“Package for Charlotte Nacht.”  The salarian announced briskly. 

 

“She’s my mom, I can sign for her.”  Grace said in a sweet smooth voice.

 

“No, it has to be individual the package was sent to.  There is a privacy clause on this -”  The salarian paused and looked blankly at Grace.

 

“Just sign here and here.”  He handed her the datapad and she calmly accepted the large package.

 

“Thank you.”  She called to his retreating form.  Grace knew that she shouldn’t have done that, but sometimes the urge was too great to resist.  She hardly ever got to practice her abilities and the touch she had used on the courier was feather-light.  Just a gentle nudge and his mind shifted under hers. 

 

Grace carried the heavy package inside and only briefly considered waking Char up before she opened it.  The plastic box opened and revealed two smaller packages nestled within.  The first box was metallic and bore the imprint of Kassa Fabrications.  Grace set that one aside as it was simply armor and was wholly uninteresting.  The second box was a much smaller and lighter plastic case with no identifying marks.  Grace lifted this one into the kitchen.  She carefully stepped around the sleeping turian on the couch.  Her feet remembered the creaky places in the floor and deftly avoided them.  Her fencing lessons had given her more control over her own body.

 

She opened her prize on the counter and was a little shocked at what she found within.  Little bottles of hair and iris dyes lined the inside of the case, along with a palette of makeup that was perfectly matched to Char’s skin.  Grace carefully read the labels, but her curiosity had been sated and left her alone with anxiety.  Char could handle many things, but disguises and espionage was definitely not her strongest suit. 

 

* * *

 

 

“Do I look like a man?  I feel like I look like a man.”  Charlie asked Grace in a worried tone.  Her hair was short now and closely cropped against her skull.  Only a slightly longer top that was coiffed off to the right of her face resembled femininity.  

 

Grace put her hands on her slender hips and huffed again at Charlie.  “No one is going to mistake you for a man.”  She directed a pointed look towards Charlie’s abundant chest and rolled her eyes.  “Now stop moving, I’m doing the color.” 

 

Red.  Her hair was red.  It was a dark gorgeous red on anyone else, Charlie thought, but on her it just felt so wrong.  Grace had even adjusted the color of her dark eyebrows.  The green eyes were wrong too.  Charlie’s eyes should be a light grey-blue, the ever shifting hue had been her long companion and a gift from her grandfather.  The green eyes that stared back at her called her a liar.  She was not going to be able to do this.  How could she pretend to be another person if her hair and eyes were going to shout her identity so loudly?

 

“Alright I’m done.”  Grace looked at her creation with her head tilted to one side before she made a small sound and disappeared into a drawer.  The device she came back with caused Charlie to stand and protest.

 

“No, I’m drawing the line right there.  I am not going to straighten my hair every single day.  If God wanted me to have straight hair, I would have been a pale white girl.”

 

Somehow the slight woman Grace had grown up to be managed to push Charlie firmly back into her chair.  “You are not allowed to talk about God, Ms. Gene Mods.  This is what us in the 22nd century like to call a hair straightener.  You will notice that it does not iron your hair flat.  Instead it changes the shape of your hair follicles.  Now it won’t last forever, but it’ll last for a good six months.”

 

Charlie closed her eyes.  “You promise that my hair will come back?”

 

Grace giggled at the woman’s vanity before deftly sweeping the device over Charlie’s scalp.  “I promise.”

 

When Grace’s machinations were complete and Charlie had stepped into the beautiful matte black armor with gold trim, it was startling how much she looked like a different person.  Charlie was forced to admit that her hair had turned out quite nicely.  The dark red strands would catch the light and unnaturally reflect a shimmer of gold.  She turned from side to side and stared at the new face observing her.  Grace, however, was frowning at her.

 

“It’s the nose isn’t it?”  Charlie poked at the large broken fixture on her face.  “No amount of makeup is going to help there.”

 

Grace frown deepened.  “Well, at least, your skin has gotten darker with all of this natural sunlight.  Maybe you look different enough to mask your identity.”

 

“Well let’s hope so.”  Charlie said before she swept the woman up in an aggressive embrace.  Even though Grace was seventeen, she was still so small that Charlie could pretend she was a little girl for a little longer.  “Thank you, for your help.  I’ll miss you.”

 

Grace responded with a mumble into her shoulder.  “I can’t hear you.  Did you say to squeeze you tighter?  Well alright then.”  She felt the girl trying to get a hold on her, but Charlie easily avoided it and quickly trapped her arms.  “Aw, I love you too.”  A bright blue glow surrounded Grace and a firm, but gentle force pushed Charlie free.  “Nicely done, dear.”   She said in a proud voice.

 

Grace gave her a falsely exasperated expression.  “You are impossible.”

 

“I just want to make sure you’ll be fine without me.  Remember what we talked about.  Keep your head down and -”

 

“Check your corners and keep moving.”  Grace finished for her with another exaggerated eyeroll.

 

When Charlie emerged from the room, Garrus’ face told her that the disguise might actually work.  There was only a briefest flash of confusion and wariness before his features softened and he recognized her.

 

“Your fringe, uh, hair is all red.”  Garrus brilliantly commented.

 

“Used all of your C-Sec training to figure that one out, didn’t you?”  Charlie smirked at the turian.

 

Garrus ignored the barb and slowly circled her.  “Does it hurt to cut your hair?”

 

Charlie chuckled at the very turian question.  “No, it’s mostly dead cells.  Here.”  She abruptly snatched his ungloved hand and forced it into her hair.

 

Garrus made a brief chirrup of disgust at the sensation before his manner turned curious again.  “Oh, it’s soft and thin.  I’m sorry.  It’s too weird.”  He pulled his heavy hand back and became serious.  “That looks like expensive armor, Charlie.”

 

Charlie looked down at the suit.  It was manufactured by Kassa Fabrications which made the top-of-the-line armor for humans and it was the most recent release of the Colossus line.  In addition to possessing the best shields Charlie had ever seen, it also came with a built-in medigel dispenser and integrated hardware for all sorts of applications.  It was also rated for long term use in non-hospitable environments.  The helmet, which Charlie would begrudgingly take with her, had a completely plexi-glass front.  This negated her only real complaint about the bulky piece of equipment, that it hindered her peripheral vision.  The suit was probably worth half of Charlie’s yearly salary. 

 

“Yeah it’s pretty pricey.”  She said lamely, knowing full well what Garrus was going to say.

 

“And Nihlus had it delivered to you within twelve hours of you agreeing to do the mission with him.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Didn’t you tell me that he had already put in a request for your leave of absence before you agreed?”  Garrus said.

 

“Yes, he did.”  Charlie scratched the back of her head, without realized she had stolen the nervous habit from Garrus.  She had already been over all of this in her head yesterday.  “So he’s yet another arrogant turian who I am forced to work with.”  She said dismissively.

 

Garrus finished his circle of her and stopped directly in front of Charlie.  “I’m not concerned about his arrogance.  I’m concerned that Nihlus won’t watch your back.”

 

“I’ll be fine, Garrus.”  Charlie gave Garrus a crooked smile. 

 

“Sit.”  Garrus barked the order in a commanding tone and Charlie sat down.  “You have no idea what you put me through when you charge blindly into danger.  You are a reckless whirlwind and, yes, it might be effective, but half of the time I’m stuck trying to put you back together.  Now you’re heading to the Terminus Systems with someone who left you bleeding out on the step of Huerta the last time you were in a firefight.”  His voice had become progressively more heated until he was yelling at Charlie.  A blue flush was stretched across his neck.  “I know I can’t stop you from going, but don’t leave me here with empty words as a comfort.  You probably won’t be fine.  You’ll probably be injured doing something incredibly brave and stupid.”

 

Charlie watched the plates on his face shift under the strain of his anger.  “You’re right I probably will.  That’s who I am.  I’m not the smartest person or the most reasonable, but I get results.  I need the results, Garrus.  I left one arm of the Citadel in shambles when I moved to Elysium and I didn’t have any proof of where to point the finger.  Now I’m being given a chance to fix that.  I’m not going to Omega as a favor; I’m going to Omega to get some answers.  I’m sorry I lied to you.  I probably won’t be fine, but I promise that I will come back with a few new scars for you to yell at me over.  Okay?”

 

When she finished her response, Garrus offered her a hand to stand up and they looked at each other for a long time.  Finally, Garrus sighed and scratched the back of his neck.  “I don’t think I can take you seriously with green eyes.”

 

The joke was an olive branch and Charlie’s laughter was her acceptance.


	38. Chapter 38

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day! My boyfriend and I have a three day weekend so ... I probably will not be posting any chapters if you catch my drift. However I will be back on Tuesday. So I haven't really said what my schedule is for posting, but I've stayed somewhat steady at posting on every other day. I will be changing that to every three days. Sorry, but it's hard to keep up the pace. Enjoy your weekend lovely people. :)

Charlie almost walked past Nihlus on her way through the terminal.  She probably would have kept on walking, but there weren’t a lot of turians on Elysium.  The short, for his species, brown plated barefaced turian hunched over a cup of chuile did not look like Nihlus Kryik.  When he noticed her watching him, Nihlus motioned to an empty chair at the small café table. 

 

“So barefaced then?”  Charlie said with a wicked smirk.

 

“Doesn’t your culture have similar misgivings towards redheads?”  He asked while his eyes coasted over her transformation. 

 

“So I have a new look, do I get a new name?”  Charlie asked as she skated her hand over the omni-gel menu.  If they were heading to Omega this would be the last time she would be able to find a decent cup of coffee for a while.

 

“Elizabeth Hill.”  Nihlus responded as he flicked his omni-tool and sent her a data packet.

 

“That’s my middle name.”  Charlie said blandly. 

 

“I’m so pleased that you picked up on your own name.”  Nihlus said dryly.  “I assumed that you had been called by your middle name often enough that it won’t feel strange when I, or anyone else, use it.”

 

That made sense to Charlie, but the name also seemed a little dry.  It didn’t have any life to it.  She considered telling Nihlus just that, but for once prudence won over jokes and Charlie instead said.  “I hope you are aware of my inability to act.  I’m not really sure how much help I’m going to be.”

 

“I didn’t choose you for your acting.  In public, you will be my silent companion.  I need you to be intimidating and when I give the signal I need you to be aggressive.”

 

“I’m not going to be your lapdog.”  Charlie said with a frown.  Although a secret part of her liked the idea of terrifying mercs.

 

Nihlus took a sip of his chuile and leaned back in the chair with one foot propped up on his knee.  The effect was instantaneous, as Nihlus shifted back to his normal persona.  “Do you want to know something interesting about the species in the galaxy?”  He asked her in his normal languid tone.  “Turians do not come in varied shapes.  We can get unhealthy and lose muscle mass, but the effect isn’t as apparent as it is on some of the softer species.  Couple that with the fact that we force our young into military service and you get an interesting phenomenon.  From outward appearance it’s difficult to judge the dangerousness of any given turian.  However, there are many turians who are not capable of serving in the military, either for medical reasons or because they live outside of Council space.  So the best way to judge a non-threatening turian is by his mannerisms and those I can fake.  Now let’s look at the other species.  If you meet a solitary krogan, you are safe to assume that he is aggressive, but not intelligent.  If you meet a solitary asari, you are safe to assume that they possess biotic capabilities.  Salarians are intelligent.  Volus are shrewd, but harmless.  Yes, I’m being racist, but you know I’m right.  I’m only talking about first impressions.  Now humans on the other hand are a different ball game.  You are all so varied, but you wear your identity for anyone to see.  Unlike turians, humans can get too fat or too thin.  This means that your threat level is laid out for all to see before you can even shake hands.  I’m not even going to get into the percentage of human biotics, because that’s a whole other fear.  However you, Nacht, are physically impressive and intimidating.  It will be clear from your appearance alone that we should not be taken lightly.  You’re tall, for a human, and you’re clearly muscular even in armor, but it’s the way you carry yourself that sells it.  With a few firm actions, you’ll make this mission go smoothly.  While I will play the role of a non-threatening businessman you will take on the appearance of my hired muscle.”

 

Charlie heard the words and pointedly did not take the compliment that was nestled amidst them.  She knew what she looked like, a finely honed machete.  Not a precision instrument, but not one to be taken lightly.  Crude, but effective.  “Alright.”  She simply said as she sipped at her coffee.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_G._

_Entering Sahrabarik now.  No injuries to report.  Do me a favor and hack into the cameras I have placed in the house and check on lil G for me?_

_Hill_

* * *

The ship they took to Omega had been cramped and smelt like shit.  However the smell that assaulted Charlie’s nose when they stepped out on Omega was somehow worse.  A pervading stench of death, rot, disease, and musk threatened to knock her off of her feet.  The worst of it was the wide range of alien colognes and perfumes that the citizens drenched themselves in to avoid reeking of the foul underlying odor.  Charlie was suddenly very appreciative of her empty stomach. 

 

Nihlus walked in front of her and Charlie had to constantly remind herself that the hunched, frightened turian was the famous Spectre.  He was very good.  Charlie only stayed a step behind him though and had to push him a couple of times to keep him moving through the crowd.  A batarian mercenary planted himself in front of the two of them and Charlie quickly moved in front of Nihlus with a hand casually stroking the grip of her shotgun.  Nihlus had carefully prepped her on the long flight there on how she should handle any interaction.

 

“Aria requests your presence.”  The batarian informed Nihlus ignoring the towering woman.

 

“Of course.”  Nihlus quickly responded behind her.

 

His message delivered the heavily armored batarian left.  Charlie shared a brief look with Nihlus before she let him take the lead again.

 

Charlie was very grateful that she had never developed the customary “cop walk”.  She had always preferred a saunter to a walk.  This served her well on Omega, because Charlie was very bad at faking.  Most military or law enforcement types could be readily distinguished even in civvies.  However, Charlie had been the first human C-Sec officer, which meant there had been no one there to teach her the customary walk of authority and command.  Instead she relied heavily on her imposing presence and ability to label her.  Without a uniform, Charlie could easily be mistaken for a mercenary.

 

Charlie was also extremely grateful for Ada.  The orange glow wrapped around her eyes quickly laid out a map of Omega which she was going to have to rely on.  Omega was a sprawling seedy metropolis with hundreds of almost invisible back alleys and streets.  Charlie could already imagine getting lost in the dark station.  Ada was working overtime between mapping the station and doubling her security.  She hadn’t been sure if it was a good idea to bring the VI with her to Omega, but Charlie was quickly labeling it one of her better plans.

_Security intrusion detected._

_Threat nullified._

 

Charlie darted a hand out to grip Nihlus’ shoulder to make him stop as she scanned the crowd for the culprit.  The tiny salarian boy was easy to spot sitting by a corner watching the crowd walk by with his large multi-hued eyes.  Charlie skirted the edge of the crowd and easily took the boy off-guard.  She pulled him off the ground and not unkindly forced him to stand.  Without saying a word she held out her palm to the boy.  The small salarian child went still and was clearly tensing up for a bolt.  When he noticed the gesture he slipped the too large omni-tool bracelet off of his wrist and handed it to her.

 

Charlie held one finger up to the boy in a “wait here” gesture.  She didn’t smile or make any other sudden movements.  Though he was clearly counting his possible escapes and her weapons, he didn’t take any of the openings she left for him.  Moving quickly she slapped the bracelet on her free hand and ran a system check and program sweep.  It wasn’t difficult to find the offending program and after she briskly made a copy of all the pertinent information she handed the device back to the boy.  Surprised that he got to keep the tool he quickly darted when Charlie took a step backwards. 

 

It was difficult to play with the program as she continued to follow Nihlus, so Charlie let Ada handle the mundane task of decrypting the software.  Exactly one minute later Ada announced her success and Charlie implemented the information into her glasses.  Glancing around at the members of the crowd told a completely different story than before.  She bit back a smirk at the multitude of symbols the members were tagged with.  Some of them were clearly labeled as affiliations with the various mercenary groups that called Omega home.  However it was surprising the number that were listed as “gave me shelter once” or “do not trust” or “will pay for services” or “slaver”.  It was different from the use of tagging on the Citadel.  It spoke to the darker undertones of life on Omega and of desperation.

 

A half hour of walking was all it took to arrive at the doors of Afterlife.  There were certain details about the universe that Charlie now resided in that the games had gotten wrong or possibly just oversimplified.  Afterlife was one of them.  The sprawling building glittered violets and blues that stood out in harsh contrast to the rest of the dismal station.  The most shocking aspect of the club was how impeccably clean it was.  The building seemed to shine like an impossible beacon of civilization in an otherwise third world station.  Charlie had a dark feeling that it was kept this way to draw moths into its all consuming flame.

 

They were expected at the door and the bouncer quickly stripped both of them of every weapon.  For Nihlus this meant his solitary pistol.  For Charlie this mean her pistol, shotgun, sub-machine gun, and both combat knives.  The rough batarian gave a disapproving look at her omni-glasses and as a truce Charlie switched them off. 

 

The club was deafening.  The music, noise her brain argued, threatened to become a physical entity.  The force swept through the room and everyone moved to it, with or without their consent.  Wading through the mass of differently colored flesh was a chore that Charlie had some begrudging experience with.  An asari mistook the woman for a dance partner and promptly attached herself to Charlie’s side.  A long hard glare caused the girl to jump and back off. 

_Probably isn’t even out of her maiden years.  Less than a hundred, probably less than eighty years old._

 

Charlie’s face showed her inner repulsion at having what was little more than a child grind against her.  She had to bite back hard on her sudden impulse to “fix” Omega.  It was the depraved cousin to the Citadel and had a way of pulling at every string of her resolve. 

 

Aria’s loft hung over the crowded club and it wasn’t long before Nihlus and Charlie reached the ground level entrance.  Another silent batarian scanned them both before they were allowed to enter.  Aria slouched easily against the lavish comfort of her couch.  A small grin pulled itself slowly over her violet skin, so that by the time she acknowledged them she was grinning.  Charlie found it to be entirely unsettling. 

 

“My, my Nihlus Kryik aren’t you all grown up.  I’d ask you what you doing back here, but that takes all the fun out of guessing.  So I’ll settle for asking how big of a bloodbath is this going to be?”  Aria’s voice was rich velvet coating a jagged edge. 

 

“It shouldn’t be much of one.  Unless you want it to be.”  Nihlus had completely dropped the pretense and was standing lazily leaning against the wall.

 

“Hmm … now why don’t I believe you?  Carnage and death follow you, but I suppose it will be entertaining.  You do look positively drab without your colors though.” 

 

“Such is the life I lead, my queen.”  Nihlus replied with an insincere grin.

 

“Are you going to introduce me to your associate?  I haven’t had the opportunity to meet the ex-Detective Nacht.”  Aria’s azure eyes found Charlie’s and the world stopped.

 

Charlie tried to find her breath, but there was none to be had.  The pulsating sounds of the Afterlife faded away and she existed in a suffocating empty space devoid of color or shape.  A soft sound of music pervaded Charlie’s mind and she recognized it immediately.  Terrified and blind Charlie latched out and held onto the song of the black pillar and it carried her out of the miasma and forced her jarringly back into her own body.  Charlie stumbled forward as the sudden existence of her senses scratched painfully on her mind and she gasped for air.  Aria’s cool demeanor vanished instantly and she stood up and yelled at the gasping woman.  Charlie managed to get her body under control and anxiously fingered the empty holster on her thigh.

_Looks like Aria’s prediction of a bloodbath was truer than either of us realized._

 

However, after the confused and pained outburst Aria resumed her original position.  She stared intently at Charlie, who tried not to wither under the gaze.  “Well aren’t you a little ball of secrets?”  The once soft velvet of her tone laid in tatters and all Charlie heard was the steel edge.

 

Though her body was once again hers, Charlie’s mind was still reeling from the experience.  Anxiety ran rivulets of perspiration down her back which her new armor eagerly wicked away.  Charlie stared the violet woman who had left her in this state.  Even though fear threatened to take her, Charlie defiantly glared at the powerful asari.  Gradually, fear was replaced with rage and her surroundings and situation came into sharp focus.  Nihlus continued to talk to Aria as if nothing strange had transpired while Charlie calmed herself by making plans in case this meeting went wrong.

_Two steps to the right.  Shin to the knee and a palm heel to the throat, the batarian is shortly incapacitated.  Acquire his pistol.  Now the turian on the left set of the stairs is charging you.  Take a quick step behind the injured batarian and unload the pistol into the turian and save a round for the kneeling man.  Acquire the turian’s assault rifle.  Spare a glance at Nihlus and Aria.  Is she distracted?  If, yes, proceed to the deal with the guards on the right set of stairs._

 

This mode of thought continued until Nihlus gracefully bowed away from Aria and gave a short nod to Charlie.  She mutely followed him out of the club, down the always darkened streets, and to the shabby room they were going to call home for the next month.  Once safely alone, Charlie sat heavily down on the hard bed and scrubbed her face with her palms. 

 

Nihlus carefully unfolded his hunched stature and grew four inches.  He sat on the desk across from Charlie and said.  “So that was a useful trick.  You’ll have to teach it to me some time.” 

 

Her first response was a loud groan into the synthetic mesh surrounding her hands.  “I would have to know what I did, first.”

 

Nihlus absorbed this information with a quiet nod.  “Are you alright?”

 

No, she wasn’t alright.  The pain and damage was not physical.  Charlie could not point to the offending nerve cluster and demand an explanation of what happened.  Instead it was her mind that seemed to have an open wound.  However, she couldn’t quite figure out how to convey this Nihlus so Charlie said.  “I’m fine.  What did she do to me?”

 

The feint concern shifted into humor as Nihlus smiled at her.  “What have you never ‘embraced eternity’?”

 

“No.  Asari aren’t my tastes.”  Charlie immediately regretted the response as Nihlus gave her a knowing private look that told her that he knew what her tastes were.  In attempt to cut off the turian’s thoughts she added.  “I thought they had to touch you or fuse nervous systems or something like that?”

 

Nihlus shook the stray thoughts from his head and responded.  “Well, yes, they would if what Aria had done to was sexual and loving and not an attack.  What she did was intrusive and I admit I probably should have warned you.  Aria T’loak is a powerful matriarch and should not be underestimated, because she will use every tool in her belt to get what she wants.”

 

“So, did we get we needed from her?”  Charlie followed his sentence quickly with her question.  Silence seemed to be more painful and listening to Nihlus talk drew her attention away from the pulsating wound invisibly etched in her brain. 

 

“Well we didn’t get shot, so this is already starting out better than some of my trips here.”  Nihlus said with a smirk.  Charlie thought she may have picked up some residual concern around his eyes.  “But, no.  We did not get any leads.  Our first job tomorrow will be to genuinely become businessmen.”

 

Charlie groaned under the tediousness of this mission.  It quickly was becoming evident exactly why Garrus had been so concerned about her well being.  A glance at the filthy bed and Charlie decided to sleep in her armor.  Nihlus took the narrow bed next to her, but shirked his armor.  Apparently he had no such reservations about the questionable living quarters.  Before she went to sleep Charlie checked her messages. 

_E_

_Lil’ G is fine.  I’m not hacking into your security system to spy on her.  I will call her everyday like I promised._

_G._

 

Charlie twisted her lips in mild frustration.  She had been seventeen once too and she had had many a boy slip into her room after hours.  She wasn’t trying to hold Grace to a higher standard than herself, but her childhood had been far too relaxed and there had been too few rules.  Between a mother who could barely stay conscious for an intervention and too old grandparents, her childhood had been rife with her pushing the lax rules as hard as she could.  Charlie didn’t fool herself into imagining that Grace was still an innocent child, but she also didn’t think it was prudent to leave a teenager alone in an empty house.  It was like leaving the keys to a Ferrari on the counter next to a bottle of vodka and simply saying “Don’t do anything crazy”.  Charlie smirked at the old reference that bubbled up within her.  It’s true that she trusted Grace and Micah, but she didn’t necessarily trust them alone together.

_G._

_You’ve seen the way M looks at her.  Just check occasionally during the night cycle to make sure there are not any overnight guests.  I met a queen today.  I wouldn’t say she was very nice, but I don’t have any injuries to report._

_E._

 

* * *

 

 

The next week was harrowing in how it stretched Charlie’s patience to an almost breaking point.  They were getting nowhere.  Nihlus was actually a legitimate businessman and continued to buy and sell goods on behalf of a small turian colony.  Charlie mutely followed the turian around the massive station as he expanded his false empire.  Nihlus’ original statement that she might have to show some force was entirely overstated.  The most Charlie had had to do while on the station was gently stroke her sidearm.  That was enough to make most challengers back down. 

 

Left to live entirely inside her head was driving Charlie to madness.  To preserve her own sanity, she played a silent and invisible game with the many children of Omega.  The salarian boy the first day had hardly been the only attempt to break through her firewalls.  Now that she had access to the network the kids were using, Charlie would test the tiny hackers’ skills during the long hours of following Nihlus.  If she deemed the attempt impressive enough, Charlie would send a few credits as a reward.  Because of this action, Charlie and Nihlus had gained a small following of filthy children who would hide in the shadows around them.  She never actually conversed with any of them, but she also didn’t remove the tag they had placed on her, “fellow gamer”.

 

Charlie was one step behind Nihlus as they walked down the filthy corridor.  A sudden distress message beamed out in front of them and she roughly dragged Nihlus to a corner, forced him to sit, and drew her shotgun.  One of the Omega rats had let the message fly and Charlie only saw it because she had the access to their network.  There was a brief pause where nothing happened and a few Omega citizens scoffed openly at the easily startled woman.  The sound of an exploding grenade echoed off the walls and the disdainful faces turned to fear as they scattered.  Remembering her orders from Nihlus, Charlie stood her ground over the crouched turian and charged her shields. 

 

The brief battle unfolded before her as twenty Blue Suns mercenaries stormed a storefront.  Charlie forced herself to not intervene.  This was not her fight and she would only succeed in getting both her and Nihlus killed.  Surprisingly several armed men opened fire from within the store.  She didn’t have a decent angle on the firefight, but Charlie could tell that the defending men were outnumbered and outgunned.  A common red stripe across the varying armor styles labeled the defenders as an upstart merc group.  The Blue Suns, however, were professional mercs and they quickly cleaned out the offending group.

 

Charlie muffled a curse when she saw the tiny salarian boy pressed against the corner of the building.  He had been the one to first send the distress message and he was trapped.  He laid there shaking and attempted to blend in with the surrounding filth. 

_Don’t move.  Just stay calm._

 

An observant Blue Suns member spotted the shaking boy and roughly gripped him by the arm.  “Hey we got somethin’ here.  Whaddya think?  An informant?” 

 

A bored gruff voice called from inside the smoking building.  “Sure, why not.  Just get in here and help clean this shit up.”

 

Charlie could not stop her legs from moving when she saw the gun come up in the merc’s hand.  She charged the man, grabbed the offending arm, and brought her elbow down on the limb to break it at the joint.  The man screamed in pain and released the salarian boy who quickly darted away.  Using her momentum, Charlie expertly dropped the man to the ground and had pulled both her shotgun and pistol before his armor clattered to the metal floor.

 

Her shotgun was pointed at the prostrate man and her pistol was directed at the rest of the company of mercs, who had quickly drawn their own weapons.  She scanned their faces for any information, but she found only hardened resolve.  They would easily let her kill the wounded man. 

 

“What the hell is going on out here?”  A deep and distinctly batarian voice called from within the shattered store.  There was a heavy sound of footsteps on shattered glass before the owner of the voice made his presence clear. 

 

“We missed one of them, boss.  They’ve got Caleb pinned down.  Should we take the shot?”  The voice belonged to a younger human male and Charlie could hear the slight falter of indecision and panic seep through his tone.

 

With a grunt the older batarian stepped out through the shattered window and quickly assessed the situation.  “Put your goddamn guns down.  She’s not going to shoot anyone.”  Neither Charlie nor the mercenaries shifted their position.  With a growl the batarian cuffed the closest mercenary and gradually the Blue Suns lowered their weapons.  “Now what the fuck is happening out here?  This human female is not a member of the Cutlasses you fuckin’ idiots.  So what happened?”

 

When none of the members spoke up, Charlie did.  “I don’t give a fuck about your turf wars, but this one was going to kill a kid whose only fault was poor timing.”

 

“There are no innocents on Omega, which should have been your lesson on Day 1.”  His eyes darted to the prostrate Blue Sun.  “Do you require his death?”  The batarian’s eyes closely followed Charlie’s minute move.  She was not very fluent in batarian mannerisms, but she clearly felt the empty question.

 

“Let him nurse the broken arm.  There was no harm done here.”  Charlie was not surprised to hear the steady sound of her own voice.

 

“Who holds your leash, _girl_?”  The note of derision towards her gender bounced off of Charlie’s impassive face.  She refused to let the batarian see the flash of Mindoir it recalled to her mind.  The panicked screaming of Jess while the batarian slavers beat her, sounded within Charlie.  However she only jerked her head in the direction of Nihlus.

 

“You are?”  The batarian barked the order.

 

“Jaeson Rellan, sir.”  Nihlus responded with subservient undertones laced in his unsteady voice.

 

“Bring your pet to Fight Pit tonight.  She’ll make for interesting sport.”  The batarians top set of eyes held Charlie’s own, but his lower set slid unsettlingly across her form.

 

“Yes, of course.”  Nihlus hurriedly agreed. 

 

Charlie held the batarian’s eyes for a moment longer before she fell in behind the turian and they walked off.


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovely lovely people. I'm sorry it took me so long to get back here, but there were things happening this week. Stupid life doesn't it know that I would rather be writing? So to re-iterate from the last chapter, I am changing my schedule permanently to updating every three days instead of two. This will give me a bit more polishing time. I hope you are all well and thank you ever so much for the kind reviews.

"Excellent." Nihlus announced once they were alone in their bedroom. "Now we have a ticket to the underground. Wonderfully done, Hill."

 

Charlie positively glared at Nihlus. "I'm so glad it worked out for you." She spoke the words around clenched teeth.

 

Nihlus wide grin did not falter in the face of Charlie's cynicism. "Do you know what the Fight Pit is?"

 

Charlie rolled her eyes and stopped grinding her teeth. "I assume it's some gladiatorial arena."

 

Nihlus made a quick movement as he checked the reference on his omni-tool. "Yeah that's pretty much it; however it's not usually to the death. Most of the time it's just between two skilled fighters and the winner is the last person standing. Sometimes they pit one group against another. It is purely skill driven. There are strict rules about no armor, weapons, or tech. They do allow biotics, though. Essentially I think it's the perfect space for you to show your strength. You'll be excellent."

 

Garrus' words of caution echoed back to Charlie and she found herself rooted to the floor.

 

If Nihlus noticed her expression, he ignored it. "This might not have been the original plan, but it's even better. I can reach out and find contacts while you draw the attention in the arena."

 

She swallowed her apprehension and forced lungs to breathe easy. She was Charlotte Nacht, damn it, and she was powerful. She hadn't faced a challenger she couldn't overcome on the mat in years. This was going to be just like that only with the threat of death looming over her. Unsurprisingly, that thought did not bring Charlie any comfort.

 

* * *

 

Nihlus Kryik was extremely concerned for Nacht's safety. The earlier events of the day had been unexpected and dangerous. He was used to plans not working perfectly, but he was accustomed to being the individual who shot his them to hell. Thinking back on every interaction he had ever had with the human woman, Nihlus realized that he should have expected this. He knew that she was feeling restless and anxious. He had known all about the protective aura she surrounded the children of Omega with. Nihlus had attempted twice to relieve some of Nacht's obvious tension with sexual advances, but she had firmly stopped that course of action. The Spectre was not sure what else he could have done. Nacht was a heavily encrypted vault when she wanted to be and she refused to talk to him about her mental state.

 

The Fight Pit was not where he wanted to be right now. Especially since Nacht was going to be participating in the blood sport. He watched her go through her stretches in the dirty backroom. Her once olive skin had turned brown under the Elysium sun and the effect hid some of the scars that she was mapped with. His eyes stopped at her shoulder where the marks he had left her with had been removed. Nihlus' mask cracked for the briefest moment as his eyes scanned her toned form for the other marks. No, they were all carefully taken away.

 

It shouldn't have hurt him. He didn't feel strongly for the woman, after all, but there was a part of him that ached with the offense. Nihlus thought he understood Nacht. She was like him. They were both individuals who couldn't risk being tied to another. Either for apparent emotional reasons, on Nacht's part, or career related, on his. Something about the kindred spirit he saw in her had forced him to mark her. It wasn't a property mark and Nacht was not a female who could be tamed. The scars he had left her with were a reminder that he was not alone.

 

Now they were gone.

 

Nihlus' diligent mind cast off the perceived offense and returned to observing Nacht's preparation for the battle. Apparently finished with her warm-up routine, the woman began to wrap her forearms and shins in thick gauze. When she stood in front of him dark skinned, fiery haired, and proud a thin layer of his apprehension melted. Nacht was a formidable weapon and it was up to him to see that she was wielded properly.

 

"You ready?" He asked her, decades of practice kept his voice steady and his face a mask.

 

Nacht shrugged her muscled shoulders and spoke flippantly, "I guess so. I mean, god forbid, what's the worst that could happen?"

 

He didn't know what to say to that. The sound of the door opening cut off any response he was trying to form and a krogan stood ready to usher Nacht to the arena. The thundering sound of the audience clawed at his sensitive ears. With another flippant wink at him, Nacht followed the krogan out of the room. Nihlus knew that she was more anxious than him, but an outsider might not have been able to tell. An observer would also not be able to tell that the hunched turian that quietly followed the woman out of the room was actually a Spectre and was positively terrified for his friend.

 

When Nacht stepped into the arena, the crowd turned murderous towards the new blood. Across the dirt and blood covered floor, a krogan bellowed and beat his chest for the admiration of the audience. Nihlus could see the previous fight had left the krogan injured, but he knew that only made the krogan more fearsome. Nacht had not stepped more than a foot into the arena and looked terrified and frail. Her tight black shorts and sports bra seemed to extenuate her utter lack of natural armor. Compared to the towering mass of muscle that was the krogan, Nacht was a child.

 

The sharp retort of a gun signaled the beginning of the fight and Nihlus winced when the krogan charged the woman. He almost missed the subtle change of Nacht's footing and how she gracefully sidestepped the attack. Suddenly the krogan was pressed against the plexiglass wall of the arena and Charlie was wrenching his arm out of its joint. Her opponent bellowed in pain and lashed out with his one good arm, but Charlie had easily danced out of the way.

 

Unlike any of the other fights Nihlus had seen Nacht participate in, there was no humor in her eyes. There was only resolute determination. The krogan, now realizing his folly in underestimating the human woman, matched Nacht's steps as they circled each other. Nihlus was surprised when Nacht chose to charge the krogan. One step from the braced man, Nacht leaped and came crashing down into the alien. His eyes couldn't quite make out what had transpired, but the result was Nacht's knee firmly planted in the krogan's groin while her elbow crushed his windpipe. There was the briefest of pauses when Nacht waited to see if the krogan was going to tap out. When her opponent reached for her, Nacht quickly shifted her straddling position and twisted his one good arm with a hollow crack.

 

When the guards came into the arena to take the krogan away, the crowd leapt up around Nihlus shouting cries of "Human". Her single victory had turned the fickle love of the audience. However, if she noticed the differing chant, Nacht did not acknowledge it. Instead she sat heavily down on the low bench near Nihlus and took a long drink of the offered water.

 

Satisfied that Nacht's skills had not diminished over the years; Nihlus skirted the edge of the crowd and sought the faces that could actually help his mission. He had rooted out several sources of where the mercenaries that plagued the Citadel had originated from. The most accessible location had been Omega and as he scanned the members of the screaming crowd he heard the sharp retort of the second fight starting. Nihlus spared a brief glance towards the arena and noticed that Nacht had been pitted against two asari. If they were both biotics, it could pose a problem, but he trusted Nacht's ability to take care of herself. Spying the human male that he was searching for, Nihlus shifted his way easily through the crowd. He took a seat near his contact, but not close enough to draw attention.

 

Ten minutes later the audience swelled and jerked backwards in a simultaneous wince. The action stole Nihlus' attention from the orange glow of his omni-tool where he had been having a silent conversation with the human male seated to his right. When he jerked his head up to look at the arena, Nihlus' legs forced him to stand and his firmly attached mask slipped and shattered.

 

Nacht stood in the center of the arena covered in purple blood. At her feet lay a prone and unconscious asari. The most disturbing aspect of the horrifying spectacle was Nacht's movements. She stalked the remaining asari like a wild animal toying with her prey. The wounded asari shouted her submission as she crawled away from the mad woman. With a cry, Nacht launched herself at the asari and landed a foot in her ribs before dancing away and avoiding the flash of feeble blue biotics. The laughter that Nacht had been lacking in the first fight was back, but it wasn't the casual laughter of sentient being. It was cruel, hard, and manic. Nihlus pushed his way back to the front of the crowd and watched as the guards dragged the crying asari out of the Fight Pit along with her suspiciously limp partner.

 

With a cry of victory, Nacht raised her violet painted arms to the crowd and let their cheering wash over her. Nihlus could see that she was not uninjured this time as she turned and revealed a spider web of red across the back of her left thigh. He recognized the damage as a Warp biotic attack though the turian had never seen the attack used on bare flesh. The severe injury barely put a hitch in Nacht's stride as she approached the low bench. When she came closer, Nihlus noticed the manic expression of insanity in her eyes.

 

Instead of sitting down to rest Nacht took long pulls from the water bottle on the bench. When she finished she shouted at the crowd until her throat was raw. Nihlus' mind went into overdrive. This insane animal was not Charlotte Nacht. That meant something had happened to her. Nacht would never act in such a manner.

 

_Wouldn't she? Didn't she attack you in the Spectre office? Didn't she charge head on into danger at Grissom Academy?_

 

No, he firmly told himself, that different. This wild-eyed creature before him was not Charlotte Nacht. He tried to fit the pieces together and his eyes stopped on the water bottle in her hands. Where had that come from? The usually cautious and intelligent Spectre had not even questioned its presence in the arena.

 

_Shit._

 

_Shit this is bad._

 

There were a multitude of drugs that could cause Nacht's behavior, but judging by her ability to retain her combat skills Nihlus bet heavily that the water was laced with either Red Sand or Minagen X-3. Yes, this was very bad.

 

It was about to get worse. The opposite gate opened once more and this time a creature stepped through that sent chills through Nihlus' plates. Even though he had never seen one before, the turian knew exactly what he looking at when the yahg stepped in.

 

* * *

 

The beast before Charlie would be a fitting sacrifice to her greatness. The two blue women from before were not enough to show her power. She needed more. She was Charlie Nacht and she was a god. She was a vengeful spirit that suffered none to live. Her loyal subjects shouted their praise and love to her divine strength as they bellowed their prayers. Charlie knew what they wanted. They wanted her.

 

The beast opened its triangular mouth and bellowed at her. Charlie bared her teeth in what could been mistaken as a smile and returned the gesture. A blade landed at her feet and she did not question its appearance. Naturally, she assumed, she had called the curved length of metal into existence through her sheer will. Charlie wrapped her fingers around the handle and let the long blade lie flush against her forearm. Now she was ready. Now her people would see what happens when you tempt the hand of god.

 

The beast charged her and Charlie met the charge with one of her own. With a cry she leapt upon the monster and slashed her blade deep into one set of his eyes. Somehow the towering creature gripped her back and threw her clear of his face. It didn't make sense to her. Nothing should be able to stand against her. She was a god.

 

The warm trickle of liquid down her back confused her. Gods do not bleed. With a roar of frustration, Charlie pulled her shredded top off of her body. She had no shame and let her people look on the body of the divine.

 

The beast charged her again. Such a foolish creature, she idly thought. Throwing an arm out, Charlie was engulfed with a blue flame. The monster was thrown forcibly backwards and held against the glass wall of her dominion. Moving more quickly than she had ever before, Charlie slashed her blade across the wide grey belly of the brute. Blood flooded her arms and Charlie once again painted herself in the sticky substance. Orange clashed with the violet already on her body.

 

Letting her control slip, Charlie released the beast as she raised her arms in victory. A hand full of sharp claws buried itself into her right leg in a moment of utter defiance to her will. Rage swept through Charlie's mind once more and she let it consume her. The brute pulled the woman down and under his wide body as he shredded her leg. For the briefest moment, Charlie was afraid. Tears threatened her eyes as she was suddenly aware of immense level of pain she was in. It was overwhelming and panic made her drop the blade.

 

Confusing joined with the fear as the long talons tore into her flesh. What was she doing here? Where was here? Hot tears muscled their way out of her eyes. Why was everyone yelling? There was too much pain for Charlie to make any sense of the situation.

 

Just as soon as the moment of clarity came, it was gone and Charlie was once again the terrifying aspect of god. She darted her hand to the gaping wound on the creature's face and plunged her hand within, grasping at every slippery tendon she pulled back. The beast erupted in pain and rolled off of her body. Charlie retrieved her blade and tried to stand, but her cowardly leg folded under her. Reaching deeply inside of her, Charlie shouted at the monster and lifted her arm once more. This time the grey creature was pulled off of the ground and slammed heavily back onto the metal floor.

 

Charlie had to drag her unresponsive leg, but she reached its neck and sliced deeply through the flesh. Her enemy and sacrifice beheaded, she tried to raise the trophy to her subjects, but her left arm was numb. She looked down at the useless appendage to make sure it was still attached.

 

The woman, who was covered in more red than orange or purple, tried to stand to meet the next challenger; but it was futile. The new creature rose menacingly above Charlie and she raised her right arm to attack him, but it fell limply to her side. The sharp talons clutched her neck and threatened to strangle her. Bile and sick flooded her mouth and breathing was difficult. What was happening to her? What's going on? The questions panicked her as her vision grayed out.

 

* * *

 

E.

I am officially done playing spy for you after what I accidentally saw last night. Lil' G is a grown woman and I am not invading her privacy any longer.

G.

 

* * *

 

E.

What's going on? You either didn't message me yesterday or I didn't get it. Are you alright?

G.

 

* * *

 

E.

I am getting on a flight to Omega unless you respond back by the end of the day.

G.

 

* * *

 

G.

The medical condition of E is at present time stable. E did not leave instructions for your imminent departure and has expressed on seven separate occasions that E wishes G to remain on the Citadel.

L. A. L.

 

* * *

 

E.

Is your VI talking to me?

G.

 

* * *

 

G.

E has not programmed this virtual interface for the function of written communication. LAL is anticipating the user's commands based off of E's previous communiqués with G.

L. A. L.

 

* * *

 

"Calmly: The medication may take up to an hour before Ms. Hill is fully awake." The giant elcor doctor had said the words two hours ago and Nihlus' patience was beginning to wear thin.

 

Another spam in Nacht's right arm caught his attention and the turian leaned over the comatose woman. Her eyes fluttered open for a second time, but this time her pupils dilated and she was clearly watching him.

 

A jumble of sounds came from her throat and he said. "Hey there, take your time and try not to move."

 

Another slurry of sounds came from her mouth and Nihlus was fairly certain it was meant sarcastically. It didn't matter though, because she was awake and partially lucid. He felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders. This had been a rough week and he was not sure just how Nacht was alive right now. When he had reached her side and felt the thready pulse as she rested beside the dead yahg, Nihlus had resigned himself to carting her broken body back in a crate. If Aria hadn't had a doctor waiting in the wing of the Fight Pit, Nacht would definitely not have made it. Once again, Nihlus considered the reasons why the matriarch had intervened with help. Once again, Nihlus considered that he might not want to know the mysterious asari's reasons.

 

"N - us" Nacht stumbled over the words as she attempted speech.

 

"I thought I told you to stop talking." Nihlus admonished the woman.

 

"Schtup ir." Nacht mumbled the words, but Nihlus did not understand them. She closed her eyes and the turian could see her muscles tighten under the effort. "Happened … at pit?" The pride of her success was evident on her slack face.

 

"Well," Nihlus considered his words carefully. "You killed a yahg."

 

Nacht's large eyes squinted at the turian in disbelief. "No."

 

"I couldn't make this up." Nihlus thought that that was probably not true, but he was sure that no one would believe the story anyway. "Technically you beheaded the yahg armed with nothing but a batarian short sword."

 

Nacht's eyes broke contact with his and she stared at the ceiling. "Don't remember."

 

"What do you remember?" Nihlus asked gently.

 

The damaged woman closed her eyes for a long time. Nihlus watched as sudden jerky movements worked their way down her body as Nacht slowly regained control of her muscles. His stomach was a hollow pit as he noted the utter stillness of her right leg.

 

Eventually Nacht turned back to him and said, "Walked to the Pit. Fought krogan?"

 

Nihlus nodded his head. Her words were jerky as if her mind couldn't remember speech. Nacht's lips wrestled with each syllable and a cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

 

"I won. Broke his arms." She paused and blinked several times. "Two asari. Didn't think that was fair. Don't remember fight."

 

Nihlus considered this a good thing as he recalled the grisly display. Should he even tell her what happened?

 

"There were complications." He began carefully. "In short, you were drugged."

 

Nacht nodded her head, as if that fit with her memories. "What drug?"

 

"Red Sand cut with Minagen X-3."

 

Nacht drew in a deep breath that whistled in her lungs. "Damn."

 

"So you understand what happened?"

 

She tossed him a derisive look. "Worked Vice."

 

"Alright, so I promise that I will tell you exactly what happened later, but you need to rest. You just woke up from a week long medically induced coma after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke."

 

"Where are we?"

 

"Still on Omega." Nihlus responded with a weary sigh.

 

Nacht scowled and leaned heavily back on the pillow. "Usually I'm home when I wake up from almost death."

 

Nihlus chuckled at the dark humor and waited till she fell back asleep to leave.

* * *

 

G

I'm alive. Don't worry so much you'll crack a plate. I'll tell you all about it when I get home.

E.

 

* * *

 

E

I will require a full list of your injuries so I can use it as blackmail later. Did you know that your VI sent me messages? Also what do you remember about organ smuggling?

G

 

* * *

 

G

Yes, I did know. She told me. Talk to C and get the info from him.

E

 

* * *

 

Two days later and Charlie was slowly being driven insane by the elcor physician. Under normal conditions she didn't consider herself to be racist, but after two days alone with the most chatty elcor she had ever met … her already thin patience snapped.

 

"Pissed off: I know that I need to stay for more physical therapy, but I have to get out of this room!" Charlie yelled at the elcor.

 

"Patiently, but strained: If you do not work the muscles in your right leg, you will lose mobility." Even in the bored tones the words cut her.

 

The last time she had heard those words had been well over twelve years ago and in another life. Charlie was fully aware of the shredded tissue that made up her right leg, but she could manage a loping walk with a cane and that felt good enough for the moment. Back on Elysium she could see a proper doctor and get the scarred tissue taken care of. Of course that meant that her intimidation factor on Omega was going to fall a little flat.

 

Charlie took a deep breath and composed herself. "I understand that I was badly injured. I promise that I won't exasperate my delicate c-c-condition." She frowned at the stutter that had been plaguing her. She knew that the vocal symptom of her recent brain damage was not going to help her convince the doctor.

 

"Conciliatory: I will let you leave the facilities only after you watch this vid of what transpired in the aptly named Fight Pit. Admonishing: Perhaps then you will understand my apprehension." The elcor moved slowly to the vidscreen and entered a few commands with his massive hand.

 

Nihlus had kept his promise and told Charlie what had happened when she was under the influence of the Red Sand cocktail, but watching the events was a completely different experience. Her face seemed to consist entirely of a single emotion as she raptly followed the screen with one hand wrapped around her mouth: horror. The revulsion she felt as the false entity wearing her flesh coated her half naked body with the rainbow palette of blood was overwhelming. She promptly threw up on the floor. She almost missed the harsh rattle that was her avatar's voice shout above the din of the bloodthirsty crowd, "Bow before me, my children. For I am your god made flesh."

 

Charlie didn't stop throwing up until the burn of yellow acid clung to her throat and mouth.

 

"Enough." Charlie whispered past her hoarse throat.

 

"With determination: No, you must watch it." The impassive face stared down at her.

 

When yahg lie dead on the filthy ground and the abomination that looked like her had passed out resting against the wide body; Charlie watched Nihlus continue to work on her. The wreck of her person could hardly be distinguished as a human. Her leg was in tatters and the white of the bone was visible from small camera high on the ceiling. When her limp flesh was lifted off of the dead carcass of the yahg, Charlie could see the damage that the alien's claws had dealt to her back. Nihlus struggled to keep the shredded flesh of her back together as he passed her to the elcor.

 

The doctor switched off the gruesome footage and put a large hand on Charlie's shoulder. "Apologetically: It was important for you to understand what transpired and the extent of your injuries. Do you understand?"

 

Charlie nodded her head. "I do. How did I l-l-live through that?"

 

The doctor shifted his large body and gestured to the room. "With pride: I was informed that a human female was in need of medical aid in the Fight Pit. You were lucky that I was over prepared for the event."

 

A thought flickered through Charlie's mind, "Who is paying you?"

 

The physician drew up his large body and pulled away from her. "Offended: I am a doctor. I help those in need."

 

Charlie lifted her hands in a placating gesture. "I'm s-s-sorry. Thank you for your help. You saved my l-l-life and I am grateful."


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have an extra big chapter today, because I couldn't bear to split it up. I hope you all enjoy it. Also, just in case you can't remember, Ian Rodriguez was the man way back in the beginning of the story that had Cerberus ties on Mindoir. :)

Charlie limped out of the small hospital wing that Aria had set up behind her club. The armor was now extremely uncomfortable as it compressed her injuries. She felt awkward. The rolling gait brought back quite a few bad memories. She wasn’t concerned about her safety though as she made the long trip back to the small room she and Nihlus were sharing, because Charlie had her weapons. The batarian at the front of the hospital had returned them.

 

After he had handed Charlie her weapons the gold skinned batarian drew a long curving blade. He held it in front of him before passing it to the woman. “This is the weapon you used to slay the yahg.“ His deep booming voice was not unkind. “It should be yours.”

 

Charlie stood awkwardly staring at the man before she took the short sword. Actually she was not sure what the classification of the weapon should be. The weight was only slightly heavier than her normal combat knives, but the blade was a just over a foot long. Charlie hefted the weapon and was pleased to find that she actually enjoyed the balance and grip. It would mean a slight adjustment of her usual style, but the long dagger or short sword was worth it. It was not a beautiful weapon as there were no distinguishing markings and the grip was plain grey leather of an unknown animal, but Charlie respected its straightforwardness. This was a tool and the fine edge labeled it a dangerous one.

 

It was odd to be handed a weapon by a member of a species that claimed to hate both her gender and race. The batarian must have shared the tension with her, because he shifted his feet uncomfortably. “Thank you.” Charlie finally said. “Do you know who threw it to me?”

 

He raised the space above his top set of eyes and twisted his mouth into a smirk. “Yes, I did.”

 

Charlie wanted to ask him why, but caught the words before they left her mouth. “I appreciate it …”

 

The unspoken question hung in the air between them for only a moment before he shoved his arm forward for an armclasp. “Bray. You can call me Bray.”

 

Charlie grinned at the batarian. “You probably saved my life.”

 

“I definitely saved your life.” He replied with a harsh chuckle.

 

* * *

 

 

“So, did you figure out anything about Cerberus while I was out?” Charlie asked Nihlus as she sat down heavily on the bed. She had to close her mouth quickly to stifle the moan of pleasure that threatened her lips as her weight shifted off of her leg.

 

Nihlus did not respond immediately and instead was frowning deeply at her return. “I thought you still had a few more days of recuperation.”

 

“Nah, the d-doctor said I was good as n-new.” Her head throbbed with effort of talking.

 

“Yes, I can tell.” His words were desert dry and his face was unamused. “I still do not have proof of their involvement or a reason behind it, but I have several witnesses that confirm they are recruiting off of Omega.”

 

“Well it’s something anyways.” Charlie responded with a smile she did not feel. “What’s our n-next step?”

 

Nihlus stood. “I have to go pretend to work. You are going to stay here.”

 

“You can’t g-g-give me orders here.” Charlie stood briskly ignoring the searing pain from her protesting leg. “So I am going with you. I thought the entire reason you brought me to this dump was to be your bodyguard. Because if you’re fine without me, I’ll just leave n-n-now.”

 

Nihlus touched his forehead briefly and closed his eyes. “Fine, come with me; though you’re hardly intimidating at the moment. Do you need a cane?”

 

“I don’t _need_ a c-cane.” Charlie growled the words at the turian and gripped the cool metal cane in her hand. “I just like it. However I do need my tech. Hand it over.”

 

Nihlus reached into a pocket and handed the deceptively small devices to the human. “What kind of VI do you have? Not only did she refuse to give me access, but she sent me a message requesting me to contact Vakarian.”

 

“Um, she’s a home blend of market VIs. Nothing t-t-too exciting, I’m sure.” Charlie slid the glasses on and couldn’t contain the sigh of relief when Ada greeted her with her customary aloofness. Watching the world through an orange bath felt like coming home and gave Charlie’s damaged mind some stability.

 

“I’m sure.” Nihlus said in that arid tone of his.

 

“Did you ever find out who drugged me?” Charlie asked in an attempt to change the conversation.

 

Nihlus looked up from his task behind the orange glow of his omni-tool. His eyes narrowed about the edges. “I took care of it.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

E

C didn’t have any decent leads for me to follow, but thanks for the help. Lil G is fine and we both are waiting for you to drag your ass back here.

G

 

* * *

 

 

G

I’m working on it.

E

 

* * *

 

“Let’s head back.” Nihlus said to the visibly wincing Nacht.

 

The woman immediately straightened and took her weight off of the cane. “It’s barely midday.” She indignantly responded. “We have a solid five hours left before the shops close.”

 

It was their first day back together after Nacht’s gruesome injury and the woman was clearly in pain. Nihlus understood her inclination to pretend she was not weakened, but this was not the place for it. They were too exposed on Omega with Nacht limping behind him. Nihlus knew that he should send her back to the Citadel for proper medical care, but she wouldn’t go even if he told her to. If he was truly being honest with himself he didn’t want her to go. She had been a good detective and her skills had not diminished. He leaned heavily on her suggestions, although he would never admit it to the woman.

 

However, she had just lost her footing completely for the second time that day and Nihlus was genuinely concerned for her safety. Especially since the Blue Suns were going to find out what happened to their mercenary. Nihlus had been careful when he disposed of the man. First he made sure that the batarian who had “invited” Nacht to join the Fight Pit had been the individual responsible for drugging her. Then he had spent most of the week Nacht was in the medical ward following the man. Nihlus was not an assassin by trade, but he had considerable skills as a Spectre and the batarian had not been expecting retaliation from a simple turian merchant.

 

Nihlus had carefully covered his tracks. He had not used a weapon and instead simply snapped the batarian’s neck. Nihlus was not vindictive and hadn’t tortured the man, it was a clean quick kill. His conscience had barely wrestled with the concept of killing the mercenary, because the man had attempted to murder Nacht and there was no justice system on Omega. Nihlus had little doubt that given the opportunity, the batarian mercenary would have tried to kill Nacht again. So Nihlus had not only left little trace evidence, but had taken the batarian’s omni-tool and had stripped all of the tech from the small flat. The subsequent chatter from the Blue Suns indicated that the group was under the impression that someone had hired a professional hit on the mercenary and that they were not particularly surprised.

 

Still there was a threat of retaliation that added to the anxiety Nihlus was feeling about their mission. Nacht stared up at him with her chin jutting out in defiance to her injury, as if daring him to mention her handicap.

 

“We’re going to go back and eat lunch there. There’s not much we can do today and everyone takes a half-day occasionally.” He told the woman. His explanation why he wanted to get Nacht back to the room was weak, but the woman just nodded her head and acquiesced. Nihlus lifted his eyeplates with surprise; Nacht must have been in rougher shape than he thought if she wasn’t going to put up a fight.

 

As soon as the door slid shut behind him, Nacht’s hands went shakily to the release clamps of her armor. The defiant mask the woman had been wearing all day was removed and her face revealed the level of pain she was in. Nihlus carefully did not mention it as a courtesy to her. Instead he waited till she sat down heavily on the edge of the bed before he mutely helped her remove the rest of her armor.

 

Nihlus couldn’t help but wince at the swollen sight of her damaged leg and back. Her skin had never been smooth and unblemished, but now it was red and inflamed along the deep scars. He had never considered Nacht frail or weak, but her body seemed to mock her former image. Nihlus considered whether he shouldn’t have made the batarian’s death so clean, however he quickly dismissed the idea as he was not a particularly vengeful turian.

 

“You’re going to need to elevate the leg.” Nihlus told Nacht. He wasn’t very good at comforting, but then he didn’t think Nacht would accept it if he tried.

 

Nacht didn’t verbally respond as her mouth was clamped shut under the strain of not crying out in pain and instead she nodded her head at his suggestion. After she was carefully arranged on the bed with her leg propped up, Nihlus handed her a bottle of pain relievers. Nacht grimaced at the pills that would undoubtedly prevent her from leaving the room again that day, but took two of the tablets anyway.

 

Nihlus sat down at the small desk and began typing up the previous day’s report when Nacht surprised him by speaking.

 

“Thank you.” She said in the slurred voice she had been using since her stroke.

 

Nihlus turned around and looked at the somewhat pathetic looking Nacht.

 

“I d-d-didn’t want to come back, but I think I n-n-needed to.”

 

“Pushing yourself is good habit, but knowing your limits is a better one.” Nihlus said with a small smirk he did not feel.

 

Instead of the sharp retort he had been expecting, Nacht leaned back into the pillows with a chuckle. “I’m pretty bad at that.” She made a contented humming sound as her mouth pulled into a grin.

 

“Meds kicking in?” He asked with a genuine grin.

 

Nacht giggled and lifted a finger. “I thought I should take two, but now I’m thinking that one was enough.” She let out another surprising round of harsh giggles. “Oh, my stutter is g-gone. D-d-damn it,” She said with a snap of her fingers. “I thought about it and it is b-back.”

 

Nihlus shut down his console and made his way over to his bed. He had never seen a drunk Nacht before and this was more interesting than writing up a mission report.

 

“How are you feeling?” He asked her hoping she wouldn’t open her eyes and see the wide grin on his face.

 

“Pretty fantastic,” she cracked an eyelid and looked at him.

 

“Well don’t get too used to it.”

 

She made a dismissive noise by blowing air out of her mouth. “Please, Nihlus. I’m ex-Vice I know the dangers, but I’m allowed to enjoy the feeling r-right now. I never got into using pills before; I mean there was the occasional pot, of course.”

 

Nihlus listened to her rambling and interjected, “You used to do drugs?” He spoke with mock admonishment.

 

“No,” she said far too quickly. “I mean, I used to smoke a little pot once in a blue moon, but I wouldn’t say I ‘did drugs’.”

 

Nihlus had known Nacht for a long time, but he had never heard her speak candidly about anything. He briefly considered if it was wrong to pry into her life while she was clearly high, but the opportunity was too tempting.

 

“When was this?” He asked.

 

Charlie opened her eyes wide and stared at the ceiling. After what felt like a few minutes she responded, “When I was a kid mostly. Some of my mom’s boyfriends smoked and I would nick cigarettes from their pockets. Once I got a funny cigarette and smoked that.” She let out a string of laughter. “That was an extremely unproductive day.”

 

The story was told in a light-hearted manner, but there was a bit of darkness in the way Charlie described her childhood that stood out to Nihlus. His own father had died when he was a child, but his mother had never re-married and definitely never had suitors.

 

“What happened to your dad?” Nihlus asked before internally slapping himself over the bald question.

 

“Never had one,” Nacht grinned at him, but her hands made fists in the sheets. “I mean, I obviously had one at some point, but he was just some drunken tryst of my mother’s.” She paused with her mouth open about to say something else.

 

Nihlus scrambled to think of something to fill the pause and change the subject, but Nacht continued to speak.

 

“My mom she, uh, she had a lot of boyfriends. I didn’t bother to learn most of their names. Some of them I actually really liked, but most were,” Nacht broke eye contact with Nihlus and laid back on the bed. “They weren’t good people.”

 

Nacht was quiet for a while and Nihlus thought she had fallen asleep when she spoke in a whisper, “I think that’s why I don’t want you near Grace.” Nihlus felt his body freeze in the process of standing. “No kid should have to deal with that. It’s hard to learn to like someone and then have them leave. I already drink far too much, I can’t completely become my mother and have a never-ending string of boyfriends.” She opened her eyes and turned back to Nihlus with her mouth drawn down. “You and me, what are we anyways? The occasional fist fight that leads to sex? That’s not something for a child to know about. It’s not even healthy. No, we aren’t anything. Nothing good anyways.”

 

Nihlus felt the old ache rip open in his chest, but he walled it off. She was right. Wasn’t she? He knew that she was. What they had wasn’t a romantic connection. It was like an oddly physical testament of mutual respect. Maybe he had wanted it to be more than that at some point, but when? He was never going to be anything other than a Spectre and Nacht was always going to be Nacht. It wasn’t fair to her to lift her up in his mind as a “could-have-been”. They were never going to have been more than what they currently were. They were hardly even friends, just colleagues and even that was a stretch.

 

Nihlus sat on the edge of the bed and watched her face slowly turn slack as Nacht drifted off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

The next week brought the same frustration to both Charlie and Nihlus. The two of them continued to follow the thin leads only to have them unravel before their eyes. After they found the second body of a potential informant it was painfully obvious that someone was actively working against them. Fortunately, Charlie’s frail physical state was not put to the test again. The story of the Fight Pit had spread like wildfire through the station and the mercenaries would avoid her path as she limped behind Nihlus. It was eerily reminiscent of the fame she had accrued after the incident at Grissom Academy. With the exception that instead of being seen as a hero, she was feared and Charlie found that she did not like it. However, she couldn’t deny that it was useful.

 

Charlie stood behind Nihlus who was haggling over the price of mechs with a volus. Neither of them particularly cared about the cost, but it was important to keep up their ruse. The woman’s eyes coasted over the faces of the swarm of people who passed them. A small face with large multi-hued eyes caught and held her attention. She had not seen the small salarian boy since that day she had saved him from the Blue Suns and now he was staring intently at her. Without a word or a gesture the boy darted through the throng and came to a stop further down the hall. The message was clear to Charlie, “Follow me.”

 

Charlie placed a hand on Nihlus’ forearm and jerked her head towards the boy’s direction. She had to be careful not to actually speak in public, because the stutter and lazy slur of her tongue had not left her. With a stern word to the shop owner that he would return shortly, Nihlus followed Charlie’s lead.

 

They wove their way through the masses following the salarian child as he continued to lead them. Charlie knew that she should be more cautious of the boy, but so far he had not shown himself to be anything but an orphan. Ada informed Charlie that they were en route to the V’loth district port. That struck Charlie as odd, but if the child needed help she couldn’t bring herself to refuse.

 

The hall the boy led them down was dark. Charlie and Nihlus mimicked the boy and pressed themselves into the shadowy walls. The salarian suddenly stopped and turned back to Charlie. He stared at her for a moment, then cupped one tiny hand around his ear and held one finger to his mouth. Then he seemed to melt into the darkness and was gone. Again the message was clear, “Listen and be quiet.”

 

Down the hall two figures stood in front of one of the airlocks. The first person was clearly a woman as her tight leather clad body caught the light. The woman was arguing with a man whose back was facing Charlie. The former detective wished she could activate her omni-glasses so she could see what they were saying, but Charlie couldn’t chance the pair seeing the bright orange glow. Judging by their body language, the woman was the superior and the man was deferring to her. The argument abruptly ended with the woman opening the airlock and stepping onto the docked ship. The man waited till the woman was gone to bravely flip the closed airlock the bird. Then he turned and sent a cautious glance behind him before setting off down the hall.

 

Charlie’s blood turned to ice when she saw the familiar face. The dark skinned man had let his hair grow out a little since she had last seen him, then again that had been over ten years ago.

 

_Ian Rodriguez._

 

Her hands itched to wrap about his neck, but Charlie’s training kept her feet firmly rooted. With a quick signal to Nihlus that silently spoke her next actions, Charlie slid out of the shadows. She heavily accentuated her loping walk as she strode behind Ian. Nihlus had disappeared like she had assumed he would. Even Ada could not find him. The man in front of her peered cautiously over his shoulder when he heard her heavy footfalls.

 

Charlie saw his eyes widen and his step falter. Ian turned back to run, but he collided with an invisible wall of turian and soon found his back pressed against the filthy siding of the hall. Charlie continued her slow pace till she was directly in front of the engineer.

 

“Hello, Ian. It’s been too long.” She spoke the words in a sweet tone that she did not feel. With a quick action, Charlie snapped cuffs on his wrists behind his back. “Let’s go have a chat.”

 

To his credit, Nihlus did not question her actions. Part of her wished that he would. Charlie wanted to shout for all of Omega to hear Ian Rodriguez’s crimes. However, Nihlus did not say a word and didn’t even have the grace to act surprised when she walked Ian back to their room. Of course the hotel manager sitting behind the plexiglass reading an issue of Fornax didn’t say a word either. In fact, he hardly looked up from his magazine. However, this _was_ Omega and two occupants of his hotel leading a bound man back to their room could hardly have been the strangest thing he saw all week.

 

Nihlus should have been a little surprised, but his stony face revealed nothing as he pushed Ian down in a chair in the tiny room.

 

Charlie sat down across from Ian on the bed so that their knees were touching. She then quietly and slowly laid out her weapons on the bed beside her. She had interrogated countless people and knew exactly what would frighten her old friend. The best tactics did not involve violence. Simply the threat of it was enough.

 

“Fancy running into you here.” Charlie grinned at the sweating man.

 

Ian’s tongue darted out to moisten his dry lips. “What do you want from me?” His voice said that he knew exactly what she wanted.

 

“Why?” Charlie stated simply.

 

Her captive leaned back in the chair and stared blankly at the woman. “Why what?”

 

“Why Mindoir? Why did you kill all of your friends, all of _our_ friends? I c-c-can’t seem to figure that one out. At first I thought you were a snake. That you had faked your emotions the entire t-t-time, but that doesn’t seem likely. I remember Lily. Do you remember L-lily?” His skin blanched at the mention of his old love. “You loved her. Not a fake love to fit in with the locals, but a real love. And you k-k-killed her. So, why?” Charlie’s tone teetered on the side flippant before it grew hard edges and drove into Ian.

 

“I didn’t kill them.” Ian found his voice after searching for a moment. “The batarians did and clearly you don’t have any hard feelings towards the aliens.” His eyes darted to the silver blade under Charlie’s hand.

 

Charlie leaned forward and caught his eyes with her own. “I know that Illusive Man or Pluto or whatever the flavor of the week is, I know that he ordered the attack. I know that you were his m- m- mole. I know your name, Charon.”

 

The first glint of anger flashed behind Ian’s eyes. “You don’t know anything. Do you think that I knew what was going to happen? Don’t you think that I would have saved her? Or, hell, I would have taken you with me. You were my _friend_ , Charlie.”

 

“Friends don’t lie, Ian.”

 

A bitter sound like a laugh came from his throat. “Is that what you truly believe, Charlie? You must be so alone.”

 

It was a slap to her face and it took a second for Charlie to recover. “Who was the ‘soul’ that he ordered you not to take? Was it m-m-me?” This was the question that Charlie really wanted the answer to. Ever since she had discovered the message and read that Ian had “collected a soul” a dark voice whispered that it was her. It made sense. She was after all fairly unique except for crazy Bill. Naturally the Illusive Man would want to pick her brain.

 

He sneered at the question. “You have become so arrogant in your old age. Do you truly think the world revolves around you? The person my boss was referring to was an experiment that we thought, until recently, had failed.”

 

“Gruh - grace.” Charlie answered.

 

“Yes.”

 

“But you were g-g-going to let her die?” Charlie’s voiced heated again.

 

“We thought she was a failure and everyone dies, Charlie. We should know that better than most. I didn’t know that he was sending batarians. You don’t have to believe me, but just listen. When I was explained the reason behind the attack, I understood. Do you?”

 

“There is no r-reason for killing innocent colonists.” Charlie spat bitterly at the bound man.

 

“It’s the way it was meant to be. You’re not a _shepherd_ , Charlie.” Ian’s eyes held her own and Charlie’s world spun.

 

_He knows._

 

_He does._

 

_I was scared he might, but I didn’t think that he actually did and –_

 

_Just calm down and breathe._

 

In her panic, Charlie missed Nihlus’ subtle shift of attention away from Ian and towards her.

 

Ian’s mouth opened to say something, but his eyes flickered to Nihlus. When he did speak it was with a very deliberate tone. “The future is far more fragile than you apparently believe it to be. Come with me to Pluto. He can explain it much better than I.”

 

Charlie briefly considered it before casting the idea aside. “I will never work for him. The Illusive Man treats p- p-people like p-pawns and believes lives to be expendable. My answer is no.”

 

“And you don’t think that?” Ian’s tone was heavily laced with sarcasm. “How long did it take you to decide to detonate the core of Jon Grissom Academy? Did you even consider that you could have done more harm than good or did you jump to condemn those turians to die?”

 

“They c-c-condemned themselves when they locked the ship c-controls.” Charlie growled at him.

 

“My point still stands. The galaxy is going to burn and we are all just trying to save as many as possible.”

 

Charlie didn’t have an answer ready for that statement. Her head hurt from the strain of the conversation. It had been such a long time since she had thought about the reapers. These days it seemed like an impossibility. Like a fever dream she had had years ago. To have another living breathing person talking about a burning galaxy made her head swim. Bill had been delusional and insane, but Ian was very much in control of his mental facilities.

 

Charlie closed her eyes in an attempt to control her fragile mind. When she opened them Ian was still watching her. His face had aged over the years, but the same kind brown eyes peered out at her. He had been her friend. As much as that hurt to consider, Ian had been a teacher and confidante to her. Even though he appeared to be much older than her, they had lived for a similar amount of years.

 

“I need to know what Cerberus has planned for the Citadel.” Charlie stated when she had regained control.

 

Ian tilted his head and peered curiously at the woman. “What are you talking about?”

 

“I know that Cerberus has been sending mercenaries to the station in attempt to cause civil unrest through turf wars. I need to know why.”

 

“I have no idea what you are talking about. I’m an engineer not a politician or a cop.” Ada confirmed that Ian was telling the truth with her biometric readings.

 

Nihlus crouched beside Ian and spoke. “Why are you on Omega if not to recruit mercenaries for the cause?”

 

“I’m here to make sure a … friend finds Omega hospitable.” Ian tore his eyes from Nihlus and looked pointedly at Charlie.

 

“Who was that woman you were arguing with?” Nihlus asked.

 

“You didn’t recognize her, Charlie?” Ian gave a half-hearted smile at his private joke before continuing. “I’d rather not say her name. I really don’t know anything about the Citadel, but if I were you I would be asking the resident Queen what she thinks about only ruling over the _second_ most important space station in the galaxy. If you think Cerberus can operate here without her consent, then you’re sorely mistaken.”

 

The room was silent as the implications of the statement settled. Eventually Nihlus broke the quiet and asked, “What do you want to do with him, Nacht? Kill him?”

 

Until Nihlus spoke the words, Charlie wanted nothing more than to kill their captive. Even if he hadn’t known about the attack on Mindoir, he was instrumental to their fate. However, when Charlie heard the finality of the option given by Nihlus she knew her answer.

 

“No. There’s no p-p-point to it.”

 

Ian looked surprised at the response. When Nihlus forced him to stand he turned back to Charlie and said, “I want you to know that I’m glad you got off that rock. Even if you did shoot Pluto’s plans to hell.”

 

“What d-d-did you to Grace?” She held his eyes and tried to pull the answers out of the man.

 

“An experiment,” he responded. His eyes darted away from Charlie’s.

 

“So you said.” Charlie did not bother to hide the impatience in her tone.

 

Ian shot a nervous glance at the intimidating turian behind him before answering. “We were experimenting with alien DNA and how they control their biotics. The experiment was to create a powerful biotic that was immune to certain drugs and stimulants.”

 

“O-E?” Charlie guessed. A short nod from Ian confirmed her supposition. “But Grace d-d-doesn’t have alien DNA within her. They w-w-would have c-caught it in the tests.”

 

Ian let out a sigh of resignation, “It’s not spliced into her own. Unless the doctor’s knew what they were looking for they would not have found it. I take it that you know about her additional organ?” A nod from Charlie prompted him to continue, “We manipulated the DNA of her parents and created Grace using methods that we found in an archeological dig. So she is technically human, but with a few additions.”

 

Grace was a test tube baby? The implications of this settled around Charlie. She had considered why the girl was so different, but had chalked it up to a freak mutation. To find out know that Grace was an elaborate Cerberus experiment was almost too much for her.

 

“How did you d-d-do this?” She asked the man. “D-d-debbie was a doctor, she would have kn-kn-known. What was the DNA used? P-p-prothean?”

 

“Did you think I was the only Cerberus operative on Mindoir?” Ian asked with sadness about his tone. “We had a team there. Deborah Wallis had conception problems and we assisted her. We didn’t use Prothean DNA it was something else, an extinct species and much older than Prothean. I’m sorry. I can’t tell you that I wish it hadn’t happened, but I would have done things differently if I could go back.” He caught her eyes with his and said, “But there is no going back. There is only moving forward and there are more important concerns surrounding us. Charlie, you won’t be able to get out of the future. I know you won’t come with me, but be careful. Please.”

 

She let out a derisive snort and watched Nihlus lead the man out of the room. The time she spent alone with her thoughts was not nearly long enough before Nihlus walked briskly back through the door.

 

“Are you going to fill me in what he was talking about?” He asked her cautiously.

 

“We were discussing the colony world Mindoir and the batarian att-ah-attack. If you need to know more the Hierarchy can p-p-probably fill you in better than I can.”

 

“No, I caught that part. I meant about the Cerberus involvement and you. I didn’t realize your importance in the event other than surviving.” There was an odd undertone to his voice, but Charlie couldn’t place it.

 

“Well maybe it’s l-like Aria said, ‘I’m a b-b-ball of mysteries’.” The strain of the day was forcing her stutter to rule her tongue.

 

“Look,” He said as the turian took the chair that Ian had recently occupied. “I understand that we both have secrets that we would rather not discuss, but I don’t want you to treat me like I’m a fool. Clearly you have ties to Cerberus. I’m not judging you for them; I also have some … strained relationships. However, you need to tell me if there anything pertaining to this investigation that you might know.”

 

Charlie smiled at his straightforwardness. The two of them had never actually had an honest conversation in all the years she had known him. “Trust me when I tell you that I r-r-really do not anything about this. However, I think we should g-go have a talk with Aria.”

 

Nihlus stared at her for a while longer, as if that was enough to break her decade old wall around her secrets. Eventually, he sighed and let his head fall forward. “Yeah, I think you’re right. Damn, I do not want to do this. She undoubtedly is aware of the events happening on her station, but if she has her fingers in them … this has the potential for being a rough ‘talk’.”

 

Charlie nodded her agreement and stood up to pack her bags. It was possible, even likely, that they would need to make a hasty retreat.

 

* * *

 

 

Nihlus and Nacht had pointedly not taken any firearms with them to Afterlife. As this was undoubtedly their last leg of the ill-fated mission, Nihlus had also completely dropped his Jaeson façade. Walking into the smoky club felt like an undeniably bad idea. Surprisingly, the batarian at the front had allowed Nacht to keep her new short sword which had taken the place of one of her combat knives on her back. However that was not going to be much help if this went pear-shaped.

 

“Well, well Spectre Kryik you really must stop meeting me here. People will talk.” Despite the flippant words, Aria spoke them with a bored tone.

 

“Is this a bad time? I can come back later.” Nihlus asked the asari. This was going to be a verbal dance. He knew that baldly asking and showing weakness would be inviting danger, but attempting to control a conversation with the self-proclaimed Pirate Queen could be just as deadly.

 

“That might be for the best.” Aria droned.

 

Nihlus spread his arms open in conciliatory gesture, he wasn’t sure what he was going to say next, but he wasn’t prepared for Nacht. The woman limped out from the stairs and sauntered, as best she could, and promptly sprawled on the couch across from the asari. Nihlus wanted to yell at her, but he couldn’t do so with their audience.

 

“I wanted to thank you for the excellent medical care.” Nacht said with a smile as she pulled an Ignis out and lit it.

 

“It was the absolute least I could do. We haven’t had such an exciting night at the Fight Pit in quite a while.” Nihlus could hear the warning in the woman’s voice and wondered if Nacht heard it as well.

 

“Since you clearly do not want us here, I’m just going to go ahead and be blunt.” The infuriating human announced as she propped her bad leg on the low table in front of the couch. “I’m sure there are much better ways to handle this and I’m also sure Nihlus here is internally screaming at me, but I am fed up with playing politics. I don’t want to insult your intelligence so I’m sure you know exactly why we are here. We want to know what Cerberus is up to on the Citadel and we want to know why you are allowing the terrorist group to function on your station.”

 

Nihlus was almost visibly shaking from the effort of not throttling Nacht. Aria T’loak never responded well to bluntness and candor.

 

Aria was silent for a while as she absorbed the question and stared at Nacht. Nihlus wasn’t sure what her response was going to be and he was planning two possible escape routes. One of them involved Nacht surviving while the other one did not. He wasn’t really sure which he preferred at the moment.

 

“Why would you assume I would care about any Cerberus coup?” Aria’s honey coated tone did not diminish the razor edge of her words.

 

Nacht grinned at the matriarch, as if she was supremely unimpressed. “Other than it’s happening on your station and I was under the impression that nothing existed on Omega without you allowing it to, no reason I suppose.” The smile on her face faltered for a moment and the woman leaned forward towards Aria. “Or maybe you do care? Maybe you are all in favor of destabilizing the Citadel and hence the Council?”

 

“I really do not like being threatened and I believe your authority here is tenuous at best.” The last words were directed at Nihlus, but Aria never took her eyes off of Nacht.

 

“How could I even begin to threaten you? You are Aria T’loak, Queen of Omega. I’m not threatening you and if you honestly thought I was, I have no illusions of avoiding my swift demise. No, I just want to know where all of the chips lie. So, Aria, have you thrown your lot in with the human terrorists or do you simply not care what happens on your station?”

 

“You are a strange one, Detective. I thought it might have been an effect of the drug that made you throw yourself so completely at your attackers in the Fight Pit. Now I see that that is the only way you know how to handle a situation.”

 

Nacht gave a simple shrug and said, “Go big or go home.”

 

If Nihlus had been another turian, Garrus, he would have noticed the tension that was building under Nacht’s shoulders. Or he may have noticed non-typical way the woman was holding her cigarette. Or he may have not even needed these visual clues, because Garrus knows Nacht extremely well and would undoubtedly have realized that Nacht was in a large amount of pain. He may have even deduced that this was due to the odd elevation of her damaged leg. However, Nihlus was not Garrus and did not pick up on any of the clues.

 

“Indeed. I’m not going to help you root out Cerberus. I do not particularly care for their mantras, but they get results. If one of those results is a political destabilization of the Citadel, then bravo for them. I don’t see any negative effects for me.”

 

Nacht nodded her head along with the asari’s statement and was silent for a few minutes while she finished her cigarette. Nihlus had hoped that that would be the end of the confrontation and that he would be able to steer them off the balcony, however he watched her hand slip back into her pocket and retrieve another blue cylinder.

 

“Aria, come on.” Nacht chuckled behind the smoke. “Helping an organization that tried to force a conflict with the Hegemony? That doesn’t seem like an act that would benefit the ruler of a station in the Attican Traverse. Of course you do seem to trust quite a few batarians here on Omega, perhaps you have a deal with them as well? Your price must have been impressive for Cerberus to have such loyalty.”

 

Aria’s face twitched and her once false smile drew down into a frown. “We’re done here.”

 

“Well that struck a nerve.” Nacht idly twirled the lit cylinder between her fingers. “You know, we’ve been chasing leads for a few weeks and you would not believe how many of them turned into trails of dead bodies. That seems counter-intuitive on your part, Aria. Killing off so many people just so two people with zero authority here won’t know the extent of your involvement. So what was your price? What could have turned the Great Aria T’loak? I’m not taking you for a fool so do me a favor and don’t think me one. I know that you are doing far more than turning a blind eye to Cerberus’ dealings.”

 

For a brief moment Nihlus was absolutely sure that Aria was going to hit Nacht. However, the asari simply repeated herself with an additional motion to Bray. “I said, ‘We’re done here’.”

 

The batarian stepped forward and looked down at the human female. Nacht grinned up at the stoic alien and held out a hand which he immediately took. After struggling to stand and failing to hide a wince, Nacht turned back to the still seated Aria and said, “I really do mean it though, thank you very much for helping me out in the Fight Pit. I wouldn’t still be drawing breath without your aid. You’re a very hospitable host.”

 

“We must do it again sometime.” Aria replied without any attempt of false pleasantries.

 

“One more thing, if you’ll indulge me?” Nihlus was going to kill Nacht unless the strained Aria beat him to it. “How far are you going to go to assist Cerberus? Will you help them destroy the Council in its entirety or just individual members? Have you turned your back on your own kind and would help them take down the asari Councilor? That action could destabilize Thessia. Do you have any idea how far Cerberus will go to get what they want?”

 

Nihlus reached over and took the woman from the batarian’s hold. He had to get out of there before Aria snapped.

 

* * *

 

 

Bray had to give the human female credit. She had balls. It was very easy to view the woman as reckless and foolish. He knew from previous encounters with the other races that they didn’t have the right words to describe her. Batarians did though. Bray did not think Charlotte Nacht was reckless, instead he thought she was purposeful and deliberate. From the way she sat on the couch to the casual manner with which she questioned Aria. There was a method to it.

 

The detective was a refreshing change to how most people dealt with his leader. Instead of barricading herself inside a papermache castle of false appearances, she baldly announced who she was and what she stood for. There were no lies woven into the woman’s fabric, only truths. Bray had to admit that he liked her. If he had been a younger man perhaps he would have fallen in behind her, because a person like that demands attention and loyalty. A person like Charlotte Nacht would need someone to stand at her back since she only faces confrontation head on.

 

It was not unlike the reasons he had joined up with Aria T’loak.

 

“Get me Harper on a line.” His asari mistress ground out the words as soon as the front gave the word that Kryik and Nacht had left.

 

* * *

 

 

The elevator was moving slowly as per usual. Nihlus stood beside her positively vibrating with rage. Charlie considered a more tactful approach towards beginning the conversation with him, but opted for the direct method.

 

“Did you notice how I’m st-st-still alive?” She said in an offhand manner.

 

Nihlus turned to face her. His plates didn’t seem to able to keep up with his emotions and were constantly shifting. “I noticed.” The words were strained and a slight flinch at his side told her that he was seriously considered harming her. Charlie shifted her position to defend her screaming right leg. Nihlus noticed her new stance and turned away briefly to compose himself. “Would you like to explain what the hell you trying to do in there? Besides commit suicide.” The words were more level when he finally turned back to her.

 

Charlie flinched back like she had been slapped. “I was not committing suicide.” The words ripped from her mouth before she had time to temper her emotion. “I had a hunch and I wanted to test it. You notice that I’m still v-v-very much alive and I plan to r-r-remain that way.” Her stutter was back, but Charlie really did not care.

 

“So you were testing the theory that she didn’t want to kill you?” Nihlus said with a sneer.

 

“N-n-no, I was testing a theory that she c-c-couldn’t kill me.” Charlie said.

 

“What does that tell us? That you are insane?”

 

“It t-t-tells us how deep she is in with C-c-cerberus. S-s-s-someone does not want me dead. It occurred to m-me that she shouldn’t have saved me from the p-pit. There was nothing to gain.” Charlie winced at the pain shooting from her leg. When she had decided to talk to Aria in Afterlife, she knew that she couldn’t be slowed down by a speech impediment. So she had purposefully adjusted her leg on the table so that her nerves were pinched and the delicate tissue thin paper that held her leg together pulled and tore. The injury activated the delivery of omni-gel from the suit, which fully occupied her brain and gave her some stability. It had been rough sitting there like that, but stuttering was not an option.

 

“What if you had been wrong?” Nihlus asked with icy tones.

 

Charlie dismissed the thought. “I wasn’t. If I had been, then Aria would have acted much d-d-d-differently and I would have backed off.”

 

“So did you learn anything of interest?”

 

“Not at all. This entire trip was useless. We aren’t learning anything here. All we really know now is that Aria T’loak is aiding Cerberus and that there definitely is a c-c-coup about to take place. How that ties in with the gang problem … I have n-n-no idea.”

 

Nihlus leaned against the side of the elevator in an attempt to regain some of his usual poise, but Charlie was not fooled. “We could have learned all of that if you had let me talk.”

 

“Or we could have l-l-learned none of it.”

 

It was painful talking to Nihlus in such close quarters. He was so tight lipped and relied so heavily on his skills and mask that she never felt like she was getting a straight answer. She really wanted to take the mask he wore and shatter it beyond repair. Maybe then she would be able to actually talk to the man. Yelling at him made the frustration slightly better and had the added bonus of riling him up. Charlie had noticed a long time ago that an angry Nihlus was far more likely to talk plainly with her.

 

* * *

 

 

The trip back to the Citadel was much shorter than the one to Omega. Mostly because they paid for passage directly to the station, instead of bouncing around the galaxy in an attempt to mask their identity. So the trip only took a little over one galactic day, which was just over 25 hours. For once in her life Charlie was actually looking forward to seeing a doctor. The elcor physician had not been exaggerating. Her injuries were severe and they were lasting. However, with the exception of Earth, the Citadel offered the best medical care in the galaxy for humans and Charlie hoped it was enough to reverse some of the damage.

 

She had devoted twenty minutes in the lavatory that morning to examining her condition. It was not pretty. Charlie looked suspiciously like a patch work quilt. Her leg had long deep scars that clearly bisected some of her muscle tissue. That accounted for some of her current immobility, but the rest was due to her brain damage from the stroke. Her speech impediment was the most obvious, but she couldn’t wiggle her toes on her right leg and she had also had issues controlling her right arm. Still it could have been worse.

 

The deep rumbling bass of a voice reminded the passengers to follow Citadel laws and regulations, to check in with C-Sec, and then also mentioned a seedy club in lower Shalta ward that would give them a free drink if they presented their ticket. Charlie rolled her eyes at the offer. She should report the transport ship to C-Sec or, at least, add the information to the “club’s” official packet. However she was not a detective anymore and it wasn’t her responsibility to shut down illegal skin bars.

 

Nihlus had hurried off of the ship as soon as they had landed. He had reports to write, after all. Charlie didn’t mind the solitude.

 

_Though it would be nice to not carry this stupid farkakte b—_

 

The force of the bag being pulled from her almost knocked the precariously standing Charlie over. However that didn’t mean that she completely forgot her training and did not quickly have her gun drawn and unfolded towards the thief.

 

“Whoa, whoa slow down. I’ll make sure to not surprise you after you’ve spent extended time on Omega again.” Garrus raised his arms in mock surrender.

 

Charlie sighed and snapped the pistol back into place on her hip. “Garrus, it’s good to see you. Get on this side of me, though.” She waved her right arm and Garrus immediately circled around to her injured side. When he arrived she darted an arm out and firmly looped it in his. Charlie then eased the painful weight off of her leg and leaned heavily on the turian.

 

“Shit, you’re injured.” Garrus brilliantly deduced as he sucked in a sharp breath. He immediately led the woman to a bench in the docks.

 

“No, I c-c-c-can’t sit. I’m going to Huerta.” Charlie announced even as her legs bent and sat on the heavenly bench.

 

Garrus’ face had gone quickly from slightly bemused to concern. “You’re willingly going to the hospital? Are you dying? I can call a squad car.”

 

“Not d-d-dying. Just look.” Charlie ruefully lifted her right pants leg to show him the damage. The flesh was a little more inflamed than usual, but it did tend to get like that when she moved around. She hadn’t been able to do more than look at her gorgeous black armor since the meeting with Aria and had opted for civilian clothing. Which technically she was.

 

“Spirits, what happened to you?” Garrus asked as his eyes roamed over the rest of her body and matched old scars against new ones.

 

Charlie bit her lip as she attempted to think of a way to tell him. She wasn’t going to leave anything out, but the thought of telling her friend how she had gone mental and murdered two people was not a pleasant one.

 

“Do remember the case of the human male that OD’d on Sand and butchered his family? It was like that only r-r-replace family with two asari and a yahg.”

 

Garrus’ eyes widened in horror. “You ate a yahg?”

 

“What?” Laughter was ripped from Charlie’s chest as she conjured the mental image. It felt good to laugh. It had been a while. “No, I d-d-didn’t eat a yahg. I killed one though.”

 

“Damn, with a gun?” Garrus looked pointedly at her wounds which were clearly inflicted with claws.

 

“No, I had a blade.”

 

“You killed a yahg in hand-to-hand combat? I would love to see footage of that.”

 

Charlie winced at the memory of the vid she had watched with the elcor. “You r-r-really wouldn’t. I was pruh-pr-pretty drugged and gone at the time.”

 

Garrus nodded his head at the statement, “So you OD’d?”

 

Charlie didn’t trust her voice and nodded her head.

 

“Stroke?”

 

When she nodded her again, Garrus drew back with a wince and shook his head. “And you wondered why I felt like this trip was a bad idea.”

 

Charlie gently punched his arm. “I don’t r-r-really feel responsible this time. I was very careful most of the t-t-time on Omega.”

 

Garrus stood up and half-carried Charlie towards the bank of elevators. “You definitely need to see a doctor. The day Charlotte Nacht doesn’t drown herself in guilt has to mean brain damage.” His smirk was evident, but there was a singing tension in his shoulders.


End file.
